About

Deborah Light – Mover, Maker, Mother

Artistic priorities and choreographic principles

Deborah is an experienced dance artist, choreographer and movement director working collaboratively across dance, theatre, film and site based practice. She creates work independently and as co-director of Light/Ladd/Emberton, regularly performs for others, movement directs for theatre and lectures in movement at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Deborah uses her expertise to support other artists and the freelance arts sector in Wales through mentoring and strategic roles. She is based in Cardiff and has 3 young children.

An anti patriarchal perspective runs through Deborah’s creative practice, providing the foundation for work that is both bold and intimate. She invests in the moving body as a site for personal and collective knowledge and transformation. For her dancing is a site for deep research, pleasure and change.

Since graduating from Laban (2001) Deborah’s work, focused on female identity politics, has been presented nationally and internationally (inc. Dance Roads 2007, British Dance Edition 2014 and Spring Loaded 2014). She was a Creative Wales Award recipient (2009), Place Prize finalist (2010), has been supported by The Place ChoreoDrome (2009) and ChoreoRoam (2011) and was associate artist at National Dance Company Wales and Chapter Arts, Cardiff. Work for repertoire includes Aura Dance Theatre:Lithuania, Dance Shorts:Wales, WID new graduate showcase, Salford University and Polish Dance Theatre.

Light/Ladd/Emberton creates bilingual (Welsh/English) dance productions which move people physically and emotionally and are performed with and for audiences in castles, village halls, theaters, urban spaces, and on beaches. Work directed by Deborah has featured in British Council Edinburgh Showcase (2017), A Nation’s Theatre at Battersea Arts Centre (2018), Wales in Kolkata (2019), has been commissioned by BBC/Dance UK Dance Passion (2019 & 2022) and has shown in over 25 film festivals including CineDans, LIFF & Moving Body.

Recent performance credits include Osian Meiliers ‘Qwerin’, Zosia Jo’s ‘Fabulous Animals’, Jo Fong’s ‘How Shall we begin again’ and Laura Wilsons ‘To the Winds Teeth’. She lectures in movement for actors, singers and musicians at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. As a theater/movement director she has worked for Grand Ambition Swansea and Jonny Cotsen/PaperTrail, RWCMD, Theatr Genedlaethol, Fran Wen, Taking Flight and The Other Room.

Deborah was a founder of Groundwork Collective supporting freelance dance artists in Wales, was part of the UK/Wales freelance task force, Freelance Champion for the Creative Industries Federation and an Arts associate for Arts Council Wales.

“Solid and inspiring ethics and aesthetics run through Deborah’s work and her processes and without a doubt she seems to me to be one of the voices of her time with a humanity and a talent that appeals to her audience forcefully and directly.”

— Guillermo Weickert, Spanish director & choreographer,
“I have always been struck by her distinctive voice, her boldness, her deep sense of joy and her unapologetic political, feminist perspective, beautifully rooted in the body. ”

— Eva Martinez, Dramaturg & Creative Consultant (formerly Sadlers Wells artistic programmer),
“Deborah’s ongoing inquiry is powerful and provocative. Emerging from the personal the work highlights collective injustice and through that serves as a call to action. The ongoing research is rich, thoughtful and deliberate.”

— Matthew Robinson, Artistic Director National Dance Company Wales,
“Deborah’s work shines out in the field as a place of serious joy and deep thinking”

— Simon Harris, Director Lucid Theatre,