Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer

Explore the groundbreaking performances and creative collaborations of iconic Scottish dancer and choreographer Michael Clark.

Hailed as "British dance's true iconoclast," Michael Clark is a defining cultural figure in the contemporary dance world. Since emerging in the early 1980s as a prodigy at London's Royal Ballet School, Clark has remained at the forefront of innovation in dance, working in close collaboration with a broad range of pioneering artists such as Sarah Lucas, Leigh Bowery, Charles Atlas, Cerith Wyn Evans, Peter Doig, Elizabeth Peyton, Wolfgang Tillmans and musicians such as Mark E. Smith, Wire, Scritti Politti, and Relaxed Muscle. As a young choreographer, Clark brought together his classical ballet training with London's club culture, fashion, and punk rock to establish himself as one of the most innovative artists working in modern dance. His work--variously referencing punk, rock, and pop--is marked by a mixture of technical rigor and experimentation in a way that disrupts and reimagines our understanding of dance. This book features a series of enlightening essays and vivid illustrations of Clark's best-known performances, alongside archival material. Loosely tracing the chronological evolution of his career, a variety of cultural figures--ranging from Jarvis Cocker to Charles Atlas--write about the countercultural undercurrents with which Clark's work connects.

MICHAEL CLARK founded his own dance company in 1984, which has since toured worldwide to perform at leading houses in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia, as well as on its home stage at the Barbican, where Clark has been an Artistic Associate since 2005.

FLORENCE OSTENDE is Curator at the Barbican Art Gallery in London. Previously she was Adjunct Curator at Dallas Contemporary and taught art theory at the HEAD--University of Art and Design in Geneva, Switzerland.