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In Martha Clarke, Dancers Find a Loving and Ruthless Mentor By ZULEMA QUINTÁNS
Martha Clarke is a busy woman. She is a director, a choreographer, and—for the past two years—a mentor to the choreographers in the senior class of Juilliard's Dance Division. A graduate of Juilliard herself (B.F.A. '65, dance), Clarke danced with Anna Sokolow and was an early member of the Pilobolus Dance Theater before beginning her own troupe, Crowsnest, in the late 1970s.Interested in all aspects of performance, Martha Clarke has evolved her own kind of theater, one that combines different mediums of expression. As a choreographer, she has worked with the Nederlands Dans Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theater, White Oak Dance Project, and Rambert Dance Company in London. She has also directed theater and opera for the Glimmerglass Opera, Canadian Opera Company, English National Opera, New York City Opera, Royal National Theatre in London, and American Repertory Theater, to name a few. She has received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (popularly referred to as the "Genius Award") and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.
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Clarke describes her role as somthing of a "mother hen" who consult with and nurtures the young choreographers, sharing her broad base of experience, providing encouragement, and ultimately making sure that the job gets done.
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Clarke works at the interface of dance, music, and theater, drawing her inspiration from art and literature to create transcendent pieces that explore the range of human emotion. Martha is interested in all aspects of performance. After dancing with Sokolow and Pilobolous, Martha decided that she wanted to create her own kind of theater, one that combined different mediums of expression. Her current projects include a dance composition based on Pirandellos's short stories, a commission from the Martha Graham Dance Company, and a collaboration with writer Charles L. Mee on a piece based on the life of painter Toulouse-Lautrec for New York Theater Workshop. One of her recent directing projects was Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., for which Clarke invited several of her dancers to perform in aerial choreography to highlight the fantasy of the play.In addition to juggling all of these projects, she manages to find time to mentor the senior choreographers as they prepare their pieces for the upcoming Senior Production at the Clark Studio Theater, April 28-May 1. Martha Clarke's renewed relationship with Juilliard began two years ago, backstage at American Ballet Theater, when she ran into Lawrence Rhodes (who had just become director of the Dance Division) and expressed a desire to teach at Juilliard. Some weeks later, he called to ask if she would like to be a mentor to the senior choreographers.
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Dance Division Senior Production
Clark Studio Theater
Wednesday-Saturday, April 28-May 1
For time and ticket information, please see
the calendar.
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Returning to Juilliard marks the beginning of a new phase in Clarke's career. "It's time to give back," she says of teaching—and adds that working with students gives her fresh ideas and encourages her to keep up her already fast pace. Clarke describes her role as something of a "mother hen" who consults with and nurtures the young choreographers, sharing her broad base of experience, providing encouragement, and ultimately making sure that the job gets done. Although most of her work takes place two weeks prior to the show, when the dance, lighting, and costumes are fully realized, Clarke has been meeting with each of the nine choreographers—as early as last summer, in some cases—to discuss ideas, music, and elements of the production. Whether in the studio or while parking her car, she somehow squeezes in the time to meet with each person as necessary.Senior Production is the culmination of a year's worth of work—not only for the seniors, but for the entire Dance Division. This performance series is entirely realized and produced by the seniors, with lighting and technical support by the third-year students, and features dancers from all four classes. This year's Senior Production will showcase the work of nine choreographers: Mark Burrell, Caroline Finn, Sebastian Gehrke, Michiko Isono, Andrea Miller, Amina Royster, Michelle Smith, Rachel Tess, and Marie Zvosec. "It's a lovely group of people," Clarke says of this year's class—but, as the performances draw closer, she says she will not be afraid to be both "loving and ruthless." Zulema Quintáns is a fourth-year dance student.
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