volcanohunter Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 There are reports today that critic Mary Clarke has died. May she rest in peace. http://dancing-times.co.uk/news/item/1750-mary_clarke_1923_2015 Link to comment
Natalia Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Oh no! She was one of the very great writer/editors and observers of the art. I remember her well at many a ballet festival that I attended. May she rest in peace. Link to comment
sandik Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Oh, this is sad indeed. The generation that watched English ballet unfold is leaving us. Link to comment
Cygnet Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Mary Clark was an outstanding dance writer. I am very sad to hear of her passing! My deepest sympathy and condolences to her family and friends. Mary, rest in eternal peace. Link to comment
MadameP Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Oh no... I am so sad to read this. I used to love reading her reviews in Dancing Times. Link to comment
Paul Parish Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Mary Clarke wasn't just a good critic, she was a strong-minded woman of formidable energies and large sympathieslike Lilian Bayliss or Ninette de Valois, who provided a balance of good criticism to the pioneering work those ladies did in producing ballet, without which the art would not have gained the prestige and the place in the culture that it did very rapidly. She was not there in the first generation, but the critics whom she joined when she arrived on the scene welcomed her and by all accounts really befriended her and welcomed her into the enterprise. And she was good to the next generation, And she gave them a place to work. She could not only write good criticism, she could get other people to do it too, SHe WAS the Dancing Times, and she flourished at it for over 50 years. I sure wish I had known her. But I know that I owe her a great debt, we all do; her work improved ballet, and it also helped make room in the world for ballet. We need people like her now, seriously, to make the case to the bean counters who're increasingly questioning the value of the work of the imagination and are in a position to bring the high arts crashing down. Link to comment
sandik Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Thank you Paul -- I've been thinking about Doris Hering lately, and it occurs to me that she and Clarke shared more that a few qualities. Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted March 30, 2015 Author Share Posted March 30, 2015 An obituary by Jonathan Gray with a comment from Judith Mackrell http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/mar/30/mary-clarke Link to comment
sandik Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 From Judith Mackrell's commentary. "She told me once that “it took 20 years to become a proper critic”, yet it wasn’t a remark designed to intimidate." This is such a heartening observation. Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted March 30, 2015 Author Share Posted March 30, 2015 Another from The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11504396/Mary-Clarke-dance-critic-obituary.html Link to comment
sandik Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 From the Telegraph essay Clarke, on one of Macmillan's works. “You can’t pretend to 'like’ a ballet of this nature but goodness how you have to admire it. The accumulation of evil and horror is brilliantly achieved.” In this world of Facebook "friends," how lovely to read someone parse the language like this. Link to comment
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