Jones the Dance brings ‘I Remember Myself. At Gorff’ to galleries across Wales

Throughout April and May, Jones the Dance will take up residencies in three of Wales’s major visual arts spaces, presenting a series of interactive workshops and immersive performances. I Remember Myself. At Gorff is a contemporary dance work that explores how the body acts as an archive of lived experience, holding memory and its physical imprint.

Oriel Davies Gallery, Mostyn Gallery and Glynn Vivian Art Gallery will each host a week of activity, including free workshops for community members and local schools. Participants will be invited to share personal memories and explore the instinctive physical responses they evoke. These contributions will then inform a culminating live performance in each gallery, transforming the space into a “time capsule” of moving memories, shaped by both the participants’ stories and the dancers’ own experiences.

Performers Eddie Ladd, Anna Seymour and Dan Ozeri will join Artistic Director and choreographer Gwyn Emberton on stage. The production marks Emberton’s return to performing with the company for the first time since 2019 and reunites him with Ladd following their earlier collaboration Caitlin, inspired by the life of Dylan Thomas’s wife.

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…. 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.”

Audiences are invited to actively engage with the work or observe as it unfolds, with each performance weaving together spoken Welsh, English and British Sign Language. Music is by Sion Trefor and Ioana Selaru, with design by Lois Prys, assistant choreography by Eli Williams, technical management by Jim Elliott and production by Kama Roberts.

A series of workshops and performances will take place across Wales this spring. At Oriel Davies Gallery in Newtown, a workshop with the d/Deaf community will be held on 27 April, followed by closed schools workshops on 28 and 29 April from 10:00–13:00. Performances will take place on 1 May, with a closed schools performance at 11:30 and a public performance at 19:00. The programme then moves to Mostyn Gallery in Llandudno, where free open workshops will run on 6 and 7 May from 10:00–13:00, followed by public performances on Saturday 9 May at 11:00 and 14:00. Finally, at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea, a closed workshop for mature women will be held on 14 May from 10:30–12:30, alongside a free open workshop from 13:00–15:00, with public performances taking place on Saturday 16 May at 11:00 and 14:00.

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.

Jones the Dance’s I Remember Myself. At Gorff. Image credit Jack Thomson