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Derek Jarman, director of such homoerotic films as Sebastiane, Jubilee, The Tempest, and Caravaggio-films that piled gay sex, punk fashion, high art, and bawdy camp together. In a moderately pretentious passage from his partdiary book Dancing Ledge (1984), Jarman wrote of a 1983 perfomance: This evening at the Riverside Studios Michael Clark, a young dancer of supreme artistry, performed the dance, and as he danced raised this question-as to what he should dance.... In Michael’s piece the videos flickered and Cerith Wyn Evans moved them with dexterity, and all this was surely done before by Merce Cunningham and the others who followed him .... Now surely the time has come to banish the abstract space, fill it with our daily life transfigured. . . The work Jarman described. Parts 1-TV, was in fact a penniless sketch for what was to come. Women partnered men, men partnered men, Clark danced a final solo in a tutu with long ripped sleeves, and on various small screens, both dance videos and live TV were to be seen. The next year he launched his company, becoming the newly theatrical Michael Clark of today, transfiguring daily life and banishing the abstract space. In 1986, he was the star of a video dance by Charles Atlas, Hail to the New Puritan, a riotous portrait of post-punk, ambisexual London life. Above all, Clark is a dancer, and he has a refined purity and a serene boldness that have always carried him through any onstage antics. The personality that emerges onstage is angelic, androgynous, ambiguous-suggesting, in these repects, photographs of Nijinsky. Early in his career, Clark was called the finest British male dancer since Anthony Dowell. The Nijinsky echo still strikes many, and the Dowell succession remains true. One of my clearest memories of Clark is from a 1982 concert. He stood still in deep fourth position, a'beautifully proportioned figure, his back continuing the diagonal line of his back leg, and just let his spine stretch visibly farther. Stretch within stillness, calm within speed: These are at the core of his dance nature. The show scheduled to reach New York in October already will be a month old, traditionally the point when Clark’s work reaches its sharpest. There is a good deal of blowing a raspberry at the establishment in much of Michael Clark's work. Now that Britain ex-
pects him to deliver shocking thrills, he's likely to reject any-status as some wicked but licensed court jester. If his level of craftsmanship varies somewhat, his satiric sense of what's going on in the world he knows never falters. In Thatcherite Britain, Michael Clark is a lively culture hero of alternative values. □ Dancemagazine, oktobar 1986, Alastair Macaular Michael Clark Roden je 1962. godine u Skotskoj. Pohađao je Kraljevsku baletsku śkolu (Royal Ballet School) a u Ballet Rambert stupio je u 17. godini. Tamo je brzo postao vodeći član trupę i igrao u niżu komada koje je upravo za njega pripremio Richard Alston. Ballet Rambert napustio je 1981. da bi počeo samostalno da se bavi koreografi) om. Od 1982, godine uradio je vise od deset koreografija za vodeće baletske trupę, uključujući Balet Pariske opera, Londonski festivalski balet, Śkotski balet i Ballet Rambert. U leto 1984. osnovao je trupu Michael Clark & Company, koja je na gostovanjima širom sveta prikazala četiri celovečernja programa u njegovoj koreografiji. Pojavio se u niżu filmova i video-programa, uključujući Pozdrav növöm puritancu (Hail the New Puritan) Charlesa Atlasa (Kanal 4/WGBH TV), U paklu пета poiarnih stepenica (No Fire Escape in Hell) Michaela Clarka (BBC TB) i Drugovi (Comrades), u režiji Billa Douglasa. Godine 1986. kandidovan je za Nagradu Laurencea Oliviera za doprinos baletu. □
Leslie Bryant Pohađao je Skolu Rambert. Gödinu dana proveo je sa trupom Lindsaya Kempa, a kasnije radio kao slobodan umetnik sa raznim koreografima, uključujuči Waynea Sleepa i Anthonyjä van Laasta, Michaelu Clarku & Company
pridrużio se 1985. godine. Izveo je takođe dva programa u sopstvenoj koreografiji i igrao u niżu video i filmskih programa. □
Joachim Chandler Pohađao je Skolu Rambert, a kasnije radio u Severnom baletu (Northern Dance Theatre), Baletu grada Londona (London City Ballet) i Baletu grada Dahlina (Dublin City Ballet). Od 1981. do 1986. godine bio je elan Skotskog baleta, a zatim se pridrużio Michaelu Clarku. U nekoliko navrata sarađivao je sa Škotskim baletskim pozorištem (Scottish Dance Theatre). □
Amanda King Pohađala je Skolu Rambert. Michaeln Clarku & Company pridružila se pośle diplomiranja, u leto 1986. godine, □
Ellen van Schuylenburch Rodena je u Holandiji. Učila je u Roterdamskoj baletskoj akademiji i dve godine radila sa Werkcentrum baletom, dok se nije pridrużila Holandskom baletskom pozorištu. Studirala je u Njujorku i radila sa vise vodećih američkih koreografa, kao što su David Gordon, Bill T. Jones i Arnie Zane, Karole Armitage i drugi. Prvi put je sa Michaelom Clarkom radila u proleée 1982, godine, u programu dueta, a zatim je postała jedan od članova osnivača trupę Michael Clark & Company u leto iste godine. Pored toga śto igra, jedan je od vodećih nastavnika igračke tehnike koja se zasniva na Cunninghamu. □
Dawn Hartley Rodena je u Skotskoj. Od 1983. do 1986. godine pohadala je Skolu savremenog baleta u Londonu. Trupi Michaela Clarku & Company pridruźila se pośle diplomiranja, u leto 1986. godine. □
David Holah Studirao je modno kreatorstvo u Midlsekskoj politehničkoj školi i osnovao veoma uspešan modni atelje, Body Map, 1982. godine, sa Steviejem Stewartom. Od 1983. godine sarađivao je sa Michaelom Clarkom, a u leto 1986. godine pridrużio se zvanično njegovoj trupi. Body Map uradio je kostime za sve predstave trupę, a Michael Clark i David Holah sarađivali su u pripremanju godišnjih modnih revija Body Map u Londonu. □
Leigh Bowery Roden je u Australiji. Studirao je muziku i umetničko oblikovanje dok 1980. godine nije došao u Englesku. Od 1983. do 1985. godine radio je isključivo na modnom kreatorstvu, a svoju lakrdijašku odeću i ideje za šminku prikazao je na mnogim modnim revijama u Londonu, Njujorku i Tokiju. Učestvovao je u predstavi Kostiini koji igraju (Performing Clothes), kombinovanoj ICA modno-igračkoj priredbi. Od 1984. radi kostámé i šminku za sve predstave Michaela Clarka, u saradnji sa ekipom modnih kreatora Body Map. U poslednje vrerae usredsredio se na izvođački rad. Pojavio se u Charles Atlasovom polubiografskom filmu o Michaeln Clarku, Pozdrav