DANCE
Dancing with demons
Michael Clark feared
that Mmm could send
him into a downward
spiral. He talks to Kelly
Apter about his
struggles with his past.
16 THE LIST 15 Feb — 1 Mar 2007
t’s not what you‘ve got. its what you do with it that counts. as the saying goes. And from an early age. Michael Clark had beauty. A beautiful face. a beautiful spirit and a beautiful style that other dancers tried. and failed. to emulate. And what he did. and continues to do. with that beauty has had the dance world chattering behind their programmes for almost three decades. This month sees the long-awaited Scottish premiere of his powerful work Mmm at Glasgow‘s Tramway as part of New Territories. Drawing on Clark's eventful past. it is a brutal
affirmation of life.
Clark‘s on and off stage activity has shocked. appalled. inspired. touched and singled him out as one of the most important dance artists Britain has ever produced. An art auction held in London last year to raise funds for Clark‘s company attracted contributions from Damien Hirst. Sarah Lucas and Rachel Whiteread among others and raised close to £1111. Not bad for a boy from small town Aberdeenshire.
()n the day we speak. Clark has returned to the nest. He is in Scotland to visit the woman who has been his salvation on more than one occasion. In 1988. when Clark first retired from dance aged just 26. his mother moved down to London to nurse her son through a
heroin addiction. Then again in M
1994. when his close friend Leigh
Bowery died. Clark headed back to his mother's arms for a long period of rehabilitation. But today‘s visit is on far happier terms — it‘s Mrs Clark‘s birthday. and a trip back home was long overdue.
The mother/son bond was first put to the test in l975. when a 13—year-old Clark moved 5()() miles to join the Royal Ballet School. ‘lnitially l was very homesick.‘ recalls Clark. ‘And whether it was conscious or not. I had to justify putting myself and my family through that separation. I had a lot of catching up to do because I'd obviously been a big fish in a small pond up in Scotland. There was another Scot in the same year as me. who is apparently a bricklayer now. and I remember him saying to me. "don‘t worry Mike. I was shit when I first got here" — those were his words of comfort.‘
But Clark soon became a star pupil. Riding roughshod over years of tradition. he would regularly get in trouble for wearing earrings or inappropriate clothing. By the end of his four years there. Clark knew exactly how much he could get away with. ‘I was playing a game with them. I waited until I was the lead in the school production before I got caught snifling glue. so they couldn‘t kick me out.‘
The penchant for drugs may have already surfaced. but so too had the tenacious spirit which would see Clark form his own company at the tender age of 22. Having turned down a coveted place in the Royal Ballet Company. Clark switched allegiances and headed for the modern dance world at Rambert. But within two years he had itchy feet.
'I told the other dancers at Rambert l was
‘I TOLD THE OTHER DANCERS AT RAMBERT I WAS FORMING MY OWN COMPANY AND THEY SAID “GET REAL'"