Denise Clarke

Last updated

Denise Clarke is a Canadian dancer and choreographer. [1] Born in Alberta, she became a member of the Order of Canada in 2013. [2] She works as an Associate Artist with One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theater.

Contents

Career

Denise Clarke started ballet when she was three years old. [3] She worked as a choreographer and dance teacher. [4]

She began working on "Collective Creations" together with One Yellow Rabbit in 1983.

In 1986, Clarke joined the One Yellow Rabbit Theatre Ensemble and developed its "signature physical style". [5] Clarke was the Director of the One Yellow Rabbit Summer Lab Intensive from 1997-2019. She collaborated with OYR to create shows including Breeder, So Low, Permission, Featherland, Sign Language, [6] Heavens to Murgatroid, A Fabulous Disaster, Smash Cut Freeze, Wag, [7] and Room 333.

In 2014, she performed Wag, her autobiographical dance work at the Magnetic North Theater Festival in Halifax. [4]

In 2018, she published The Big Secret Book: An Intense Guide for Creating Performance Theater. [8]

Achievements

Denise holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary, [4] and was appointed Member of the Order of Canada in 2013. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwen Verdon</span> American actress and dancer (1925–2000)

Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and she served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for theater and film. Verdon was a critically acclaimed performer on Broadway in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, having originated many roles in musicals, including Lola in Damn Yankees, the title character in Sweet Charity, and Roxie Hart in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alvin Ailey</span> American dancer and activist (1931–1989)

Alvin Ailey Jr. was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Sokolow</span> American dance artist (1910–2000)

Anna Sokolow was an American dancer and choreographer. Sokolow's work is known for its social justice focus and theatricality. Throughout her career, Sokolow supported of the development of modern dance around the world, including in Mexico and Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arts Commons</span>

Arts Commons is a multi-venue arts centre in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada, located in the Olympic Plaza Cultural District.

Dame Arlene Phillips is an English choreographer, talent scout, television judge and presenter, theatre director, and former dancer, who has worked in many fields of entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Stroman</span> American theatre director

Susan P. Stroman is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director and performer. Her notable theater productions include Oklahoma!, The Music Man, Crazy for You, Contact, The Producers, The Frogs, The Scottsboro Boys, Bullets Over Broadway, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, and New York, New York.

Karen Hines is a Canadian actor, writer and director. She is the artistic director and producer of "Keep Frozen: Pochsy Productions." Born in Chicago, raised in Toronto, she now lives in Calgary where she was playwright in Residence at Alberta Theatre Projects from 2009 to 2012, has been a performer and collaborator with One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre, a National Magazine Award-winning contributor to Swerve magazine, and has created short films featuring the character Pochsy, which have screened internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One Yellow Rabbit</span>

One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre (OYR) is based in the Big Secret Theatre in Calgary’s Arts Commons. With its Resident Performing Ensemble, OYR creates original theatrical works each year for its home audiences and also hosts The High Performance Rodeo, Calgary’s International Festival of the Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melissa O'Neil</span> Musical artist

Melissa O'Neil is a Chinese Canadian actress and singer. In 2005, O'Neil won the third season of Canadian Idol. As an actress, she is known for her roles as Two / Rebecca / Portia Lin in the science fiction series Dark Matter and as Officer Lucy Chen on the police procedural drama series The Rookie.

Martha Clarke is an American theater director and choreographer noted for her multidisciplinary approach to theatre, dance, and opera productions. Her best-known original work is The Garden of Earthly Delights, an exploration in theatre, dance, music and flying of the famous painting of the same name by Hieronymus Bosch. The production was honored with a Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience, an Obie Award for Richard Peaslee's original score, and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for choreography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pilobolus (dance company)</span>

Pilobolus is an American modern dance company that began performing in October 1971. Pilobolus has performed over 100 choreographic works in more than 64 countries around the world, and has been featured on the 79th Annual Academy Awards, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayne McGregor</span> British choreographer and director

Wayne McGregor, CBE is a British choreographer and director who has won multiple awards. He is the Artistic Director of Studio Wayne McGregor and Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet. McGregor was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) 2011 for Services to Dance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hip-hop theater</span> Theatrical genre

Hip-hop theater is a form of theater that presents contemporary stories through the use of one or more of the four elements of hip-hop culture—b-boying, graffiti writing, MCing (rapping), and DJing. Other cultural markers of hip-hop such as spoken word, beatboxing, and hip-hop dance can be included as well although they are not always present. What is most important is the language of the theatrical piece and the plot's relevance to the world. Danny Hoch, the founder of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, further defines it as such: "Hip-hop theatre must fit into the realm of theatrical performance, and it must be by, about and for the hip-hop generation, participants in hip-hop culture, or both."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crystal Pite</span> Canadian choreographer and dancer (born 1970)

Crystal Pite is a Canadian choreographer and dancer. She began her professional dance career in 1988 at Ballet BC, and in 1996 she joined Ballett Frankfurt under the tutelage of William Forsythe. After leaving Ballett Frankfurt she became the resident choreographer of Montreal company Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal from 2001 to 2004. She then returned to Vancouver where she focused on choreographing while continuing to dance in her own pieces until 2010. In 2002 she formed her own company called Kidd Pivot, which produced her original works Uncollected Work (2003), Double Story (2004), Lost Action (2006), Dark Matters (2009), The You Show (2010), The Tempest Replica (2011), Betroffenheit (2015), and Revisor (2019) to date. Throughout her career she has been commissioned by many international dance companies to create new pieces, including The Second Person (2007) for Netherlands Dans Theater and Emergence (2009) for the National Ballet of Canada, the latter of which was awarded four Dora Mavor Moore Awards.

Erika Chong Shuch is an American theatrical performer, director, choreographer, and educator based in San Francisco, California. Her work has appeared on stages in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, DC, and Seoul, South Korea.

Margaret Dragu is a Canadian dancer, writer, performance artist and feminist.

Denise Faye Greenbaum is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, and director. She is the recipient of an American Choreography Award, as well as a Screen Actor's Guild Award for the 2002 film Chicago. Faye won the Dance Track Magazine Artist Award for best choreography in a feature film for her work in Burlesque. Additionally, she received nominations including the Fred and Adele Astaire Award and The World Dance Awards for her choreography in Burlesque.

Annie-B Parson is an American choreographer, dancer, and director based in Brooklyn, New York. Parson is notable for her work in dance/theater, post-modern dance, and art pop music. Parson is the artistic director of Brooklyn's Big Dance Theater, which she founded with Molly Hickok and her husband, Paul Lazar. She is also well known for her collaborations with Mikhail Baryshnikov, David Byrne, David Bowie, St. Vincent, Laurie Anderson, Jonathan Demme, Ivo van Hove, Sarah Ruhl, Lucas Hnath, Wendy Whelan, David Lang, Esperanza Spalding, Mark Dion, Salt ‘n Pepa, Nico Muhly, and the Martha Graham Dance Co.

Elizabeth Langley is a performer, choreographer, teacher, dramaturge, creation & rehearsal director. She is the designer of a BFA Contemporary Dance Degree, in the Contemporary Dance department at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rima Pipoyan</span> Armenian choreographer, dancer

Rima Pipoyan is an Armenian choreographer, director, dancer and dance teacher. She is considered to be one of the pioneers of modern ballet and contemporary dance in Armenia. In 2017 she has found "Choreography development" educational and cultural foundation aiming to support the development of contemporary dance and modern ballet in Armenia. Since 2020, she has been the head of the Modern Dance Department at the Yerevan State Choreographic College. The department was created on her initiative. Pipoyan has presented her choreographic works in Italy, Spain, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, Belarus, Germany, Poland, Moldova, Georgia, Belgium, Portugal, etc.

References

  1. "Featured Fellow: Denise Clarke". canadiangeographic.ca. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  2. "Denise Clarke". The Shoe Project. September 20, 2023. Retrieved November 6, 2023.
  3. Drag, Sandra (November 15, 2013). "Interview with Denise Clarke" (PDF). Canadian Dance History Project at the University of Victoria.
  4. 1 2 3 "Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia - Clarke, Denise". www.canadiantheatre.com. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  5. "One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  6. "A very corporeal eloquence". The Globe and Mail. November 19, 2001. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  7. EIC (October 30, 2014). "Denise Clarke presents a new solo show". The Peak. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  8. Volmers, Eric. ""Theatre rule breaker Denise Clarke offers a guidebook for creating performance theatre"". Calgary Herald .
  9. "Mlle. Denise Clarke". La gouverneure générale du Canada. Retrieved October 25, 2023.