Memories revisited through movement in individual, interactive performances by Jones the Dance

Throughout April and May, dance company Jones the Dance will take up a week’s residency in three of Wales’s major visual arts spaces for interactive workshops and immersive dance performances. I Remember Myself. At Gorff is an interactive contemporary dance performance by the company designed to explore how our bodies act as an archive for our life experiences, holding our memories and their physical responses.

Oriel Davies Gallery in Newtown, Mostyn Gallery in Llandudno and Glynn Vivian Gallery in Swansea will each play host to a number of free workshops where members of the community of all ages and young people from local schools can share their experiences and the instinctive reactions in their bodies that their memories evoke.

At the culmination of each week, members of the public will be able to visit each gallery where it will be transformed into a time capsule of moving memories for a unique performance where the Jones the Dance dancers will take inspiration from the stories shared at each of the workshops, blending them together with memories of their own.

Dancers Eddie Ladd, Anna Seymore and Dan Ozeri will join Jones the Dance Artistic Director and Choreographer Gwyn Emberton to perform each work. This will be the first time Gwyn will return to perform as well choreograph the company since 2019 and reunite him with dancer Eddie Ladd for the first time since the production of Caitlin, a duet choreographed and performed by the duo, based on the wife of Dylan Thomas.

Jones the Dance’s Gwyn Emberton said: “We love the opportunity of working with people in the community and exploring what dance can be and can mean to us all as individuals. I Remember Myself. At Gorff is an opportunity to share our lives and experiences through dance. Our bodies hold our memories. Comfort, fear, joy and excitement are all stowed in our muscles and bones and they are ready to come to the surface, if we allow them to and if we connect to our senses a little. We are looking forward to creating these brand-new pieces of contemporary dance, each unique to the gallery we are in and the audience who join us. Being in the wonderful settings of each gallery space and through meeting people in each area, the unearthed stories that we discover together will create such a powerful and beautiful shared experience. Although we say each performance is immersive or interactive this doesn’t mean anyone will be exposed or expected to do something uncomfortable. We have created special, subtle ways that the audience can influence what happens in the performance, making it a shared creation. Community is really important to us, as is creativity and in our work and we hope dance feels like it belongs to everybody there.”

Audiences attending the performances will be invited to influence what's revealed or to simply sit back and be transported to an intimate world of shared journeys of hope, pain, loss and love and moments that can instantly transport us back in time from a school bell ringing to hearing a special song. Each performance will combine some spoken Welsh, English and British Sign Language alongside music by Sion Trefor and Ioana Selaru and design by Lois Prys. I Remember Myself/ At Gorff is supported by assistant choreography by Eli Williams, technical management by Jim Elliott and produced by Kama Roberts.

I Remember Myself/ At Gorff is created with support funding from Arts Council of Wales, The Ashley Family Foundation and Community Foundation Wales and A Welsh Government Cultural Grant Scheme administered by Adferiad.

Audiences are invited to pay what they would like for each performance.

For more information and to book for a workshop or performance visit:

www.jonesthedance.com

I Remember Myself. At Gorff. goes on tour

Autumn 2025 Newsletter