Simone Clarke FDI, CDE, DIP Cecchetti (born 1970) is an English ballerina and former prima ballerina of English National Ballet company. She retired from professional dance in 2007 and opened her own school, the Yorkshire Ballet Academy, in Leeds in 2008.

Early life

Clarke was born in

Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...

, West Yorkshire, the daughter of Alfred Clarke, a maths teacher and Janet, a secretary. She was educated at a local Catholic school. Clarke left her home in Leeds at the age of 10 to begin training at the

Royal Ballet School The Royal Ballet School is a British school of classical ballet training founded in 1926 by the Anglo-Irish ballerina and choreographer Ninette de Valois. The school's aim is to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers, especial ...

in London after winning one of 23 places sought by 4,500 entrants.

Career

Clarke trained at the Royal Ballet School (1981–1988) and then joined the

Birmingham Royal Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) is one of the five major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside The Royal Ballet, the English National Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet. Founded as the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, the co ...

where she was promoted to first soloist in 1995. In 1998 she joined the English National Ballet. During the company's tour of China in 2000. she performed the role of Odette/Odile in '' Swan Lake'' as a guest dancer, and became senior soloist in that year. In 2003 she advanced to principal dancer. She has performed as Juliet in ''

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with ''Ham ...

'', and as

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

and as Aurora in '' The Sleeping Beauty'' and the Dormouse in ''Alice in Wonderland''. Clarke has made several television appearances including Peter Wright's '' Coppelia'' and '' The Nutcracker'', '' The Generation Game'', ''Ballet Hell'', '' Blue Peter'' and the lead ballerina in '' Men in Tights''. She was the Equity trade union "dance representative" for the London region and, from November 2007, also an executive member of the trade union

Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti ...

. In 2006, Clarke's name was on a list of British National Party members leaked by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' newspaper when one of its journalists, Ian Cobain, posed as a member. Clarke defended her personal political affiliation, stating that "the BNP is the only party to take a stand against

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

"."Storm grows over 'BNP ballerina'"
''BBC News'', 8 January 2007 She faced calls to be sacked from the English National Ballet by the campaign group Unite Against Fascism, which believed it was inappropriate for a potential role model in a

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of bein ...

party to be funded with public money. ''The Guardian'' later reported that Clarke had received "nearly 300 emails supporting me" since her membership became public. On 12 January 2007, around forty people staged a protest outside the London Coliseum theatre, where Clarke was to perform that night playing the lead in the romantic classic '' Giselle'' in her first performance since ''The Guardian'' reported on her BNP membership. The ENB said that her politics were a private matter and it had no mandate to comment on her views. Clarke was also supported by actors' union Equity, which said it was illegal to sack someone for their political beliefs. In 2008, Clarke opened the Yorkshire Ballet Company, a private dance school, and went into teaching. She is a qualified Cochetti Method teacher.

Personal life

Clarke was in a relationship with Yat-Sen Chang, an ENB dancer of Cuban-Chinese descent, with whom she has a daughter, Olivia Chang Clarke, an award winning dancer. Clarke was briefly engaged to the artist and former BNP councillor Richard Barnbrook.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Simone English ballerinas People educated at the Royal Ballet School Birmingham Royal Ballet dancers English National Ballet British National Party people People from Leeds 1970 births Living people