Michael Clark

After years as a media darling in the 1980s and earning himself a unique reputation as an iconoclastic choreographer, Michael Clark’s life took on aspects that seemed to come straight out of Dante’s Inferno. He went through hell as his closest friends died and he struggled with a serious drug problem. It has taken him a long time to overcome the debilitating effects of this period, yet throughout it all there were many who never lost faith in his talent, most significant among them being Val Bourne, founder of Dance Umbrella.

To say that she has nurtured him would be extreme understatement, but interestingly, when Christies auctioned modern art works to raise funds for the Michael Clark Company in October 2006, the names who donated art works included Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Anish Kapoor, indicating that Clark also has a strong fan-base among the great and the good.

Clark mastered Scottish dancing as a child, went to the Royal Ballet School and joined Ballet Rambert in 1979 where he was immediately picked to dance solo roles, most significantly in Richard Alston’s “Soda Lake” (1981). Clark’s plastique was extraordinary: he looked frail yet had piano-wire strength, breathtaking ...