Winner of a UK Theatre Award and a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award, Gary Clarke is currently regarded as one of the UK’s leading independent dance artists. He has received great appreciation for his work as a Choreographer, Performer, Director, Mentor, Teacher and Facilitator.
Since graduating from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Gary has worked with some of the UK’s leading contemporary dance companies and choreographers including Lea Anderson’s The Cholmondeleys & The Featherstonehaughs, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Liv Lorent’s balletLORENT, Lloyd Newson’s DV8 Physical Theatre, Candoco Dance Company / Jerome Bel, Retina Dance Company, Bock & Vincenzi, Nigel Charnock + Company, Maresa Von Stockert & Tilted Productions, Phoenix Dance Theatre, The Felix Ruckert Company, Frauke Requardt, Javier De Frutos, ACE Dance and Music, New Art Club and Wendy Houstoun.
Gary has also worked as a movement artist on a number of large scale feature films including World War Z (featuring Brad Pitt), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (featuring Eddie Redmayne) and The Mummy (featuring Tom Cruise). He has also starred in Maximo Parks music video single Brain Cells. Gary’s own choreographic work has toured extensively both nationally and internationally receiving both critical and audience acclaim. His work to date has been featured in a number of festivals and seasons including The Edinburgh Festival, British Dance Edition, Spring Loaded, Birmingham International Dance Festival, Exposure Dance at The Royal Opera House, City to City Cabaret and Homotopia. He has also created work for Opera North, Anjali Dance Company, MAP Dance, StopGAP Dance Company, Ludus Dance Company, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Scottish School of Contemporary Dance, Trinity LABAN, Newcastle University.
During 2012 Gary choreographed a number of large scale productions to commemorate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games including ‘Overworlds & Underworlds’ in collaboration with filmmakers The Quay Brothers, ‘Games Time’, a touring outdoor multimedia spectacular event, ‘HOME’ for Birmingham International Dance Festival and ‘The Opening Ceremony’ for the arrival of The Olympic Torch in Leeds. He also choreographed ‘Just 30!’ to celebrate 30 years of Yorkshire Dance and ‘The Yorkshire Flock’ for Big Dance 2012. In the same year, he was selected by Dance4 in Nottingham to take part in Europe in Motion – a European artist exchange programme facilitated by choreographer Jonathan Burrows and visual artist Gerald Nestler featured as part of Brut Imagetanz Festival in Vienna.
In 2004 Gary was established as an Associate Artist at Yorkshire Dance, 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 was honoured with The Gary Clarke Dance Award from the Department of Creative Media and Entertainment Industries and in 1998 was the first recipient of the Brian Glover Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performing Arts and Dance.