CLARK TIPPET

BALLET DANCER, CHOREOGRAPHER

Tall, handsome, and virile, Tippet was the ideal partner for long-legged ballerinas. He also had the extremely rare talent to be a choreographer, the one who creates ballets.

Born October 5, 1954, in Parsons, Kansas, Clark Tippet was taken to ballet classes by older sisters when he was only five. When he was 11, he followed his teacher to New York, where he studied at the National Academy of Ballet. He joined the American Ballet Theater (ABT) in 1972, becoming a soloist in 1975 and a principal dancer in 1976. Describing his work, the New York Times wrote of "his strong dramatic presence and a witty sense of style that made him believable in a wide range of ballets." He excelled in Russian classics, such as Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, and in contemporary works.

A hiatus occurred in Tippet's career when he took leave from ABT in 1978 to recover from drug addiction. He had begun taking drugs to counteract depression, but they led to phobias that made it impossible for him to leave home. He returned to ABT in 1982 and soon began to work as a choreographer. His first ballet, Enough Said (1987) was a hit, and the NY Times described his Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 (1988) as "downright terrific."

Other ballets he choreographed for ABT include Rigaudon, Some Assembly Required, and S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. (The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America). His works were praised for the same individuality that characterized his dancing. Among the most gifted choreographers of the 1980s, he died of AIDS January 28, 1992. Next Card 54: DR. THOMAS WADDELL: Athlete, Physician