On International Dance Day (29 April), Welsh company Gwyn Emberton Dance is re-launching under a new name as Jones the Dance / Y Ddawns.
With a name inspired by the Welsh tradition of a surname connected to a job, the company intends to promote the voices of Wales, its mixed heritage, culture and languages, and support and nurture dance in Wales.
Emberton said, “I started the company as Gwyn Emberton Dance in 2015 just so I could make larger scale shows, but over time we invited other dance artists to join us on our projects such as iCoDaCo (International Contemporary Dance Collective), the summer school (now Jones Bach) in mid Wales and Quiet Beats, our dance workshop for Deaf and Hard of Hearing young people. This encouraged us to think how we can evolve to involve even more people in what we do.
"We have changed, and we feel our new name, Jones the Dance / Y Ddawns, reflects our aims and ambitions for the company to be a creative home for many more people, artists, participants and audiences alike.”