Emma Gladstone & Tim Joss remembered

5 February 2024

Emma Gladstone (Photo – Foteini Christofilopoulou) & Tim Joss

Last month the dance world lost two of its shining lights with the sad loss of Emma Gladstone and Tim Joss.

Both of these wonderful individuals worked closely with East London Dance over the years. They will be missed and our love goes out to their families and friends.

Kiki on Emma Gladstone:

I had been aware of Emma’s brilliant work for some time. It was therefore really exciting to have the opportunity to collaborate with Emma on Varmints between 2009 – 2013, which was a game changer for East London Dance (a partnership between ELD, Emma at Sadler’s Wells and Clare Connor at Stratford Circus). This project enabled us to achieve a long-held ambition at that time to commission original work with the young communities of east London at its heart, to identify the best artists to create the work alongside a number of outstanding collaborators, and to take an original dance work on a national tour. Much of this was due to Emma’s intelligent and generous approach as an outstanding collaborator and partner. She was always on hand, always willing to share her expertise and with kindness and much laughter too, a winning combination.

I so enjoyed working with her – dynamic, generous and warm, super clever, always thoughtful and always bringing her incisive and delicate, warm touch with her. She was very special, and the dance world will be the more diminished without her. Thank you so much Emma, you will be hugely missed.

Kiki on Tim Joss:

Tim approached East London Dance in the early days of his interest and commitment to setting up what is now Aesop, Arts Enterprise with a Social Purpose. Always passionate that the arts could have a transformative effect on health outcomes, in particular in the context of what then became Dance to Health, Tim invited us into conversations with health professionals, provided resources to interrogate and develop our own work in dance with older people – whilst always bringing with him an intense curiosity, knowledge, a willingness to interrogate the value of the work and a strong commitment  to find ways of showing how dance matters to older people in relation to their health.

Tim’s contribution to our work with older people was incredibly fruitful and his positive, determined and rigorous approach was invaluable; I hugely admired the way in which Tim then went on to develop and realise his ambitions with Aesop. This partnership with East London Dance flourished under the leadership of my successor Polly Risbridger and the experience of working with Tim is something we are all truly thankful for.