ABOUT GARY CLARKE

Born in Barnsley in 1980, award winning dancer and choreographer Gary Clarke has built a national reputation for creating compelling and riveting dance works that challenge current social issues with both irony and humour. Bringing together an eclectic mix of movement, music, voice, theatre and visual art, Gary has developed a unique style of work that is instantly recognisable.

Described by The Stage as 'a much admired young choreographer', Gary has entertained audiences throughout the UK and Europe with his quirky and innovative choreography that is thought provoking, visually striking and extremely rich in content. He has developed a wealth of choreographic experience in creating site-specific works (in pubs, clubs, graveyards and galleries) as well as full length productions for stage.  

A graduate from The Electric Theatre Studios (1998) and the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (2001), Gary has received both critical and audience acclaim for his ground breaking work which has toured extensively both nationally and internationally and has been featured in a variety of festivals and seasons including The British Dance Edition, Spring Loaded, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Touchwood, Junge Hunde International Dance and Theatre Festival, Oh So Totally Rad, North of the Wash, Resolution, Pulse Fringe Festival, Leeds Light Night, Liverpool LEAP Festival, The SO Festival, City to City Cabaret - Bulgaria, Arts Forum Festival, Hull Dance, LABAN Autumn Season, GDA Cabaret, The Pink Fringe / Brighton Pride and Homotopia - Liverpool’s annual celebration of queer arts and culture.

Since 2006, Gary has collaborated with a number of other artists in the creation and development of his work including renowned choreographers Javier De Frutos, Nigel Charnock and Wendy Houstoun, anarchic avant-garde performer The Divine David Hoyle, experimental noise artist Daniel Thomas and one of London’s most celebrated fashion designers Nasir Mazhar.  

Gary has also received choreographic commissions from other professional companies, institutions and organisations including StopGAP Dance Company, Ascendance REP, Ludus Dance Company, Phoenix Dance Theatre, The Nightingale / Marlborough Theatre’s, Shooting Fish Theatre Company, Dance4, Dance East, DEDA, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Scottish School of Contemporary Dance, York St John - School of Arts, Bedford University, The Taliesin Arts Centre, Pivotal Youth Dance Company, Homotopia, MDI, Corridor Arts, The CA Arts Festival and The Electric Theatre Studios.

In 2004 Gary was established as a Yorkshire Dance Partner, became Artist in Residence at NSCD and received the Artist Development Award from Danceworks UK which was presented to him by iconic British choreographer Michael Clark. In 2009 he became an Associate Artist under the LIFT programme at Yorkshire Dance in Leeds and was honoured with The Gary Clarke Dance Award from the Department of Creative Media and Entertainment Industries. In 1998 Gary was the first recipient of the Brian Glover Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performing Arts and Dance. In 2011 Gary was invited by Royal Command to attend a reception at Buckingham Palace held by Her Majesty The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh Prince Phillip to celebrate and acknowledge the high achievements of certain individuals within the performing arts.

Alongside his prolific choreographic work, Gary has also developed a reputation as a first class performer who has worked with some of the world’s leading contemporary dance companies and choreographers. For the past 10 years Gary has been a member of Lea Anderson's much acclaimed The Cholmondeleys & The Featherstonehaughs and has performed in some of the company's most seminal film and theatre works including the 1989 classic ‘Flesh & Blood’. In 2002 he joined Matthew Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures (AMP) and embarked on a world tour performing Bourne's infamous production of ‘Swan Lake’.

In 2003 Gary joined the conceptual performance company Bock & Vincenzi and went on to perform in some of Europe’s most prestigious art and theatre festivals including The Venice Biennale and The Kunsten Festival De Arts. Other performance credits include work with Liv Lorent's balletLORENT, The Nigel Charnock Company, Retina Dance Company, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Maresa Von Stockert & Tilted Productions, Sadlers Wells Productions (Frauke Redquart & Daniel Kramer), TC Howard, Karine Pointes and The Felix Ruckert Company. He has also performed in a number of short feature films and site-specific works for the BBC, Northern Stage, Opera North, Polar Produce Productions, Club Duckie and Future Cinema. In 2011, Gary worked as a performer for the Paramount Picture film ‘World War Z’ featuring Hollywood movie star Brad Pitt and directed by award winning Director Marc Forester.

Gary teaches extensively at many universities, colleges and venues nationwide delivering a wide range of classes and workshops that focus on contemporary dance technique, choreography and creative investigation. He is a regular guest teacher at Greenwich Dance Agency (GDA) as part of their Professional Development Programme, Dance 4 CAT Scheme (Centre for Advanced Training) and the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. He has also delivered a number of large-scale education projects in collaboration with The South Bank Centre, Tate Modern, Woking Dance Festival, The Royal Festival Hall, DanceEast, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Yorkshire Dance and South East Dance.

Gary is currently an Associate Artist at Yorkshire Dance and is closely affiliated to Danceworks UK in Sheffield.