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Reflections

Ever since Martha Clarke (B.F.A. '65, dance) burst onto the theatrical scene in 1984 with her dance-theater piece, The Garden of Earthly Delights, she has been challenging audiences with difficult themes (sex, oppression, genocide) and startling images that often draw from art and literature. Not surprising for someone who was named after the legendary Martha Graham.

Martha Clarke and her horse, Mr. Grey.

Clarke grew up outside of Baltimore. Her father was a lawyer, jazz musician, and songwriter, her mother an amateur pianist who adored Schubert and Beethoven. A founding member of Pilobolus Dance Theater and Crowsnest, Clarke has choreographed for numerous dance companies around the world, including Nederlans Dans Theater, Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Rambert Dance Company, and Martha Graham Dance Company. In addition to Garden, her many original productions include Vienna: Lusthaus; Miracolo d'amore; Endangered Species; and Vers la flamme.

In opera, Clarke has directed The Magic Flute for the Glimmerglass Opera and the Canadian Opera Company; Così fan tutte for Glimmerglass; Tan Dun's Marco Polo for the Munich Biennale, the Hong-Kong Festival, and N.Y.C. Opera; and Gluck's Orfeo and Euridice for the English National Opera and N.Y.C. Opera. She recently directed A Midsummer Night's Dream for the American Repertory Theater and Belle Epoque, a new music-theater piece for Lincoln Center Theater, based on the life of Toulouse Lautrec, and is currently developing a new work for Lincoln Center Theater with Alfred Uhry on the Shakers, and adapting Pirandello stories for a music-theater piece at New York Theater Workshop.

The recipient of a MacArthur "genius award" and grants from the N.E.A. and Guggenheim Foundation, Clarke was the subject of Martha Clarke, Light and Dark: A Dancer's Journey, a 1981 PBS documentary. In 2003-04, she was a guest faculty member in Juilliard's Dance Division.

What was behind your choice to attend Juilliard?

I didn't know whether to go to a university or to Juilliard. I auditioned as a junior in high school and got in on early admission. I actually graduated from high school after my freshman year at Juilliard, because my high school credited me for the courses I completed in my first year at Juilliard. Do I regret not having gone to a university? No! The artistic vibe at Juilliard was thrilling.

Martha Clarke in Doris Humphrey's Ritmo Jondo, with music by Carlos Surinach, in February 1965. (Photo by Milton Oleaga)

What do you remember about your first days as a Juilliard student?

I loved the mixture of sounds coming from the rows of practice cubicles. It was thrilling to hear the cacophony of different instruments, composers, and singers as I walked through the hallways on my way to or from class. I knew a few music students, but the dance program was very intense. There was little time for a social life. I collaborated with fellow student composer Carmen Moore, with whom I am still friends.

What Juilliard teacher made the largest impact on you and what was that impact?

Antony Tudor. He was brilliant, witty, fascinating, and perverse. I learned from him how to color and shade movement through subtext and dramatic intent. He taught me to understand the dynamic and shaping of a simple gesture or dance phrase ... his combinations were exceptionally musical as well. Although I have gone in a very different direction in my own work, I consider Tudor to be my strongest influence. His ballets are exquisitely lovely and musical, but also have a powerful psychological tension and dark underbelly.

When you were at Juilliard, what was your plan for the future? How has that plan turned out?

I knew I wanted to dance but had no plan. I did not expect to be a choreographer or a director of theater and opera. No school experience can anticipate a lifetime … My career continues to surprise me at every turn.

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