GWYN EMBERTON

Gwyn Emberton is a choreographer, dancer, producer, and teacher from Wales. After having performed with many of the UK’s leading choreographers, Gwyn set up Gwyn Emberton Dance with Creative Producer Kate Perridge in 2015. In addition to his choreographic and directing work, Gwyn continues to perform and collaborate with other dance and theatre artists from Wales, London and Europe, which includes iCoDaCo and Light, Ladd & Emberton. Gwyn regularly mentors performers and makers in the early years of their careers, supporting them to explore and expand their own practice. From September 2018, Gwyn will be Programme Director of Dance at University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

In early 2018, Gwyn led a collaboration between University of Wales Trinity Saint David and artists Martyn Ware (Heaven 17), Tracey Moberly and Sarah Hopkins on the creation of Ingot for their Power Project exhibition. The work looked at the deindustrialisation of steel communities in Port Talbot and Sheffield. In 2017, Gwyn create Raft for GED, a two-part work that examined our collective response towards the refugee crisis and otherness, and which repositioned the toxic and dehumanising language used in the media to question what would happen if it was us or those we love who needed refuge. The work toured widely across Wales and included community casts in each city and town it visited. 

Shadow of a Quiet Society was Gwyn’s first full length work for GED as an officially formed company, premiering in 2016. It was made with six female dancers and was a co-production with one of Wales’ major Arts Centres, Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Originally inspired by stories from Gwyn’s hometown of Montgomery some that date back 800 years it became a universal but surreal look at the dynamics of a community at odds with itself. Also in 2016, solo Of the Earth, from where I came was performed at British Dance Edition 2016 held in Cardiff, Wales. This was followed by a tour of the solo across Europe as part of Dance Roads Network.

Gwyn was commissioned by theatre company DeOscuro to create a duet for their multi-genre project Triptych in 2015 for which Gwyn’s work was recognised at the 2016 Wales Theatre Awards with the Best Male Choreographer and Performer Award. My People, Gwyn’s first full-length work, received a nomination in the 2015 Wales Theatre Awards for Best Dance Production.

With renowned performer Eddie Ladd, Gwyn co-devised and performs Caitlin. Directed by Deborah Light, the work has toured widely across the UK with sell out runs in Edinburgh Festival and Battersea Arts Centre. LLE also performs the Owain Glyndwr Silent Disco, the last Welsh rebellion danced in castles to disco music, directed and performed by Gwyn, and Croesi Traeth a work on a beach. 

Gwyn has danced with many of the UK's major choreographers such as Akram Khan, Matthew Bourne, Jasmin Vardimon and with Scottish Dance Theatre, also spending three years working with Inbal Pinto in Tel Aviv, Israel. As rehearsal director, Gwyn has worked with Russell Maliphant and Sadhana Dance Companies and has taught at The Place, Greenwich Dance Agency, DanceWorks in London, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Middlesex University, Coventry University, The Urdang Academy and at many international summer schools and academies. Gwyn regularly makes work on youth and young adult groups, whether through commissions or through residencies.