I Remember Myself

The Autobiography of the Body project is coming to Wales

In 2023, Artistic Director Gwyn Emberton began developing a new kind of project, one where memory, movement, and story-telling combine and with each new community and audience that takes part in it, they create a unique work that only exist because of them.

Discover what memory your body holds in 2026

In 2026, we will create I Remember myself , a unique version of this project with communities in Mid Wales, supported of Arts Council of Wales and in partnership with Oriel Davies.

I Remember Myself shares questions about what histories our bodies hold, that we might not remember. We experience the same life events, such as trauma, pleasure, taking a fall, arriving in a new country, laughter, pain, love, but in unique and individual ways.

And we discover together what happens when we tap into these moments.

Participants and audiences who come to I Remember Myself will be immersed in a highly interactive work that is communally shared but profoundly intimate and personal.

They will leave having rediscovered memories that have perhaps been forgotten deep in the body’s archive, or having looked at old memories in new and unexpected ways.

Look out for updates on how to get involved very soon.

“It was probably the most emotional performance I have ever seen in my life”,

from an audience member of Autobiography of the Body Project work in progress sharing.

Scroll down to find out more about what inspired the project and research Autobiography of the Body.

About the project and research Autobiography of the Body

The research behind The Autobiography of the Body project took place with dancers Amancio Gonzalez, Bella Khanamidi, Efva Lilja, Kim, Noble and Yoirgos Pelagais and Rehearsal Director and Dramaturg Sarah Bellugi, with composer Sion Trefor collaborating on the music. It was supported by Wales Arts International, Region Skåne, MARC and Skånes Dansteater in 2023.

The project and Gwyn’s research are inspired by the work and techniques of psychiatrist, author and researcher Bessel van der Kolk of people suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Daniel Levitin’s writings on the ageing body and Gwyn’s own interest into body awareness and self/consciousness.

Audiences as participants as audiences

The audience are the participants and the audience at the same time, in the ‘part workshop, part performance’ work.

They take part in both ‘mindful’ action and physical sensation generation that leads to associative memories, in a process of sensing autobiographical moments for themselves. They will participate in the actions with the dancers, as well as becoming observers of the dancers as they move through their own memories, which acts as a visual stimulus for the audience to project their own autobiographical moments back onto the dancers’ bodies in a process of ‘feedback looping’; sensations and memories stay with the audience as they observe the dancers, revealing more of their own biographies back to them.

“You were doing what I was feeling like”,

Audience member of Autobiography of the Body, Sweden.

The work with five dancers from across multiple generations in 2023 offers a template to view how a dancer’s history is inscribed on their body, movements and self, and how they are different depending on the dancers’ experiences.

The intergenerational aspect of the project reveals social and cultural changes over time and a way for us to view them in a personal and a contemporary context.

Who gets to be a dancer … and who gets to see and experience dance has been at the forefront of much of our work and thinking behind it; challenging conventions about who should be performing and who is allowed to experience dance as participants and audiences.

The team so far behind I Remember Myself

Concept and choreography - Gwyn Emberton

Music/score - Sion Trefor

Producer - Kama Roberts