Michael Clark Company – ‘Come, Been and Gone’ – at Barbican Theatre, London.

“ I never stop asking myself what made people want to dance in the first place,” said Michael Clark prior to the opening night of ‘Come, Been and Gone’ at The Barbican. “Was it to communicate something that they couldn’t express in any other way?”

Now a couple of years off his 50th birthday, Michael Clark continues to use dance to translate his own cultural and social messages. Swimming against the mainstream, back in the early ‘80s this enfant terrible of British dance rejected the confines of the Royal Ballet for the more progressive surrounds of Ballet Rambert. Driven by a fiercely independent spirit, and guided by legendary dancer Merce Cunningham and choreographer Karole Armitage, he set up the Michael Clark Company in 1984. Speaking at the time Clark explained where his head was at during this artistic transition. “My inspiration comes from real life. I bring life and work together. Going out to watch a punk rock band at night and doing classical ballet during the day just didn’t work. Now they fit.”

The productions that followed were some of the most important works of contemporary dance this country has every produced, radical yet classical they were very much part of the underground culture that Clark inhabited. “I first saw Michael Clark in 1984, at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, dancing to ‘Cosmic Dancer’ by T. Rex,” recalled Michael Bracewell from The Times. “The theatre was packed and most of the audience were not sure what to expect. Contemporary dance had a reputation for being somewhat worthy – and so the impact of these amazingly beautiful young dancers, hitting the stage in perfect Royal Ballet School precision to Marc Bolan singing “I danced myself out of the womb’ left us stunned.”

Four years later at the same venue I had my own Michael Clark epiphany. To the music of The Fall (admittedly my main reason for checking a ballet at that time) Clark and his Body Map clad troupe alongside the surrealistically attired Leigh Bowery, swirled and agitated around Mark E Smith and his band. The imagery and energy of that night was simply stunning as Clark and his dancers became one with the post punk soundtrack of ‘I am Kurious Oranj’.

At the time, the raw excitement of this outrageous yet beautiful counter cultural display felt like a spit in direction of Thatcher’s Britain. Always confrontational but loaded with surrealism and humour, other shows saw Clark dancing with his bum sticking provocatively out of his tights or with a group of dancers clad in football tops or covered in dildos.

Despite the exhibitionism, Michael Clark’s work has never felt superficial and his productions have always been as profound as they are absurd. The impact of his lysergic pantomimes still resonates today in the work of lauded choreographers like Matthew Bourne of course. However, Clark’s work remains unique in its almost revolutionary and hip aesthetic.

At his peak as a dancer, Clark’s ties to London’s sub culture, and the clubs where he was inspired, ensured his work was both cutting edge and hugely relevant. Nearly 25 years on with Clark now thankfully clean from the drugs that inspired him but ultimately nearly killed him, does his work now as a choreographer still have the power to move a savvy London crowd?

Whereas Clark’s ‘80s productions pulsated to the post punk of groups like The Fall and Laibach, for ‘Come, Been and Gone’ Clark revisits the music of his youth, and the “holy trinity” of the Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop and David Bowie. Back in the mid 90s following the death of his close friend Leigh Bowery and a break up in a relationship Clark sank into the depths of drug addiction and depression. So the choice of Lou Reed’s ‘Heroin’ in the opening act ‘Been’ is a brave choice. In the hands of a lesser choreographer the site of a dancer writhing and contorting with huge needles sticking out of every surface might seem rather blunt, but Clark turns this piece into a moving yet disturbing depiction of drug addiction. This was in no small part to the brilliance of the towering Kate Coyne whose size is at odds with an eloquence not often seen in contemporary dance. Congratulations must also go to the designers, Body Map’s Stevie Stewart and Richard Tory who, aided by Clark, continue this Company’s reputation for brilliant costumes.

‘Heroin’ was one of four Velvet Underground compositions danced to in the opening set, with the S&M imagery in the dream like sequence of ‘Venus in Furs’ segued into the rush of “White Light, White Heat’ as Clark’s dancers reached deep inside the music to create dance that was as expressionistic as it was innovative. Where some contemporary ballet seems hemmed in by its rejection of classicism, Clark has never forgotten the disciplines he learned at the Royal Ballet and it is this balance between tradition and modernity that stands him apart. Both angular yet flowing, Clark’s dancers throw abstract shapes while retaining a fluid line throughout the movements.

At the same time, where some contemporary dance uses music to create effect, in Clark you have a choreographer who feels the music as a fan and that resounds throughout the performance. No more so than in the final and most cohesive section of tonight’s show, ‘Come Again’. Here Clark achieves a long time ambition of choreographing the music of David Bowie, whose gender blurring imagery spoke loud and clear to a teenage Clark growing up in small town Scotland. Bathed in a glowing orange hue (respect to long time associate Charles Atlas for his superb lighting throughout the show), ‘Aladdin Sane’ saw the excellent Simon Williams turning and twisting reptilian like, while the other dancers shimmering in gold outfits interact with visceral intuition. This segues into ‘The Jean Genie’, with dancers dressed in striped jackets, their exaggerated port de bras movements a perfect match to Bowie’s urgent camp rock.

By the time Michael Clark, who has appeared in various disguises throughout the show, takes to the stage for a solo he has earned the cheers that echo throughout the hall.

www.michaelclarkcompany.com