AN exhibition dedicated to the life of the former wild boy of dance Michael Clark is taking centre stage at the V&A in Dundee.
Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer chronicles the career of the groundbreaking Scottish dancer and choreographer who fused his classical ballet training with London's punk and club scene.
The 58-year-old has survived several financial crises, a dalliance with heroin, addiction to methadone, and a spell in the mid 1990s during which he lived back home in Aberdeen with his mother and drifted into alcoholism.
Despite his self-destructive behaviour, his dance company - the Michael Clark Dance Company - is now into its fourth decade and has 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 it has been a resident company since 2005.
Clark told the Guardian in 2016: “I never really had a plan, except to express myself as purely as possible.”
Film, photography, and material will be shown in the exhibition alongside his legendary collaborations across visual arts, music, fashion and film.
Leonie Bell, incoming director of V&A Dundee, said: “Michael Clark is a truly remarkable creative force, who as a dancer and choreographer has challenged and redefined the limits of dance, its relationship to design and its place in contemporary culture.
“I am delighted to be looking forward to such a rich programme of major exhibitions at V&A Dundee, from Mary Quant to Night Fever and now Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer. This is an incredibly exciting time to be joining the team and having seen the joy of the museum recently reopening I can’t wait to get started.”
The exhibition is a collaboration with the Barbican and Jane Alison, head of visual arts at Barbican, said: "We're thrilled to be collaborating with V&A Dundee to bring Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer to Scotland in October 2021, following the Barbican's much-anticipated run from October 2020 to January 2021.
"One of the UK's most influential choreographers and performers, he became an Artistic Associate at the Barbican Centre in 2005.
"Embraced by audiences both in the UK and on tour around the world, Clark's electrifying contribution to the worlds of art, music and fashion is explored and celebrated in this inspiring exhibition, including works by a range of his most important collaborators and never before seen material from his archive."
A spokesman for the V&A said Cosmic Dancer was one of the largest surveys ever dedicated to a living choreographer and 'presented a comprehensive story of Clark's career to date and development as a pioneer of contemporary dance who challenged the furthest intersections of dance, life and art through a union of ballet technique and punk culture.'
There is also a selection of archival film documentation focusing on his work with filmmakers (Peter Greenaway, Derek Jarman), fashion designers (Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Gucci) and musicians (Scritti Politti, Laibach, Bruce Gilbert from Wire).
The archive also displays a selection of interviews with Clark, as well as the documentary The Late Michael Clark (2001) by filmmaker Sophie Fiennes.
Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer will run at V&A Dundee from 30 October 2021 to 6 February 2022.
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