'Michael Clark was born again on nine consecutive nights in a warehouse near Kings Cross'

Sophie Fiennes
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Photograph by Stephen White

Michael Clark was calling me from Angers in France sometimes three times a day, sometimes in the middle of the night - “I want you to come and see what I am doing” - left plaintive messages; “Don’t forget me dear”.

I was working with filmmaker Peter Greenaway and met Michael when he played Caliban in Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books. Michael and I had connected immediately on account of our mutual ability to recite the complete lyrics to David Bowies’ Diamond Dog’s LP.

So following some TV post production in Paris, I took a train to Angers where Michael was collaborating with New York choreographer Stephan Petronio on a dance to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring - they had each selected sections of the music to work with. Michael ran a sequence for me that afternoon - performed by a young American dancer called Joanne Barrett.

Despite zero knowledge of dance, I was instantly transfixed. This solo for the sacrificial chosen maiden who dances herself to death, played brilliantly with and against the bold dynamics of the music. There was a fusion of violence and vulnerability. I didn’t fully understand it. It was elusive and strangely coherent. The experience held me, and after some seductive cajoling from Michael I dared myself to return to London as his ‘manager’.

We resuscitated his relationship with the Arts Council sufficiently to hire a Territorial Army hall in Hammersmith for rehearsals and employ four dancers including Joanne and two Michael Clark & Co veterans: Julie Hood and Matthew Hawkins. Michael and Stephen went their separate ways, but Michael whose creative process is slow, cautious and almost hermetic, wanted to take his Rite of Spring further. Augmented by music including Sondheim’s Send in the Clowns, T Rex’s Cosmic Dancer, the Sex Pistols’ Submission and an appearance by Michael’s mother Bessie (who famously appeared topless and gave birth to Michael in the show) the performance was now called Michael Clark's Modern Masterpiece.

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