Hope Clarke

American actress (born 1941)

Hope Clarke (born March 23, 1941) is an American actress, dancer, vocalist, choreographer, and director. Clarke performed as principal dancer with the Katherine Dunham Company and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in the 1960s; as an actress on stage, film, and television, 1970s–1980s; and as choreographer and director from the 1980s onwards. She served on the Tony Awards Nominating Committee for the 2011–12 Broadway season. Clarke made history in 1995 when she became the first African American, as well as the first African American woman, to direct and choreograph a major staging of the opera musical Porgy and Bess. Clarke's production of the George Gershwin classic was staged in celebration of the work's 60h anniversary, and it toured not only major American cities but Japan and Europe as well. Clarke drew critical acclaim for her commitment to staging the show as a monument to African American community and pride, giving a more hopeful, positive aura to a story that has been criticized for its stereotypes. As for the director herself, the success of Porgy and Bess is just the latest accolade in a long career devoted to dance and drama.

A native of Washington, D. C., Clarke grew up in just the sort of community she sought to portray in Porgy and Bess. Segregation was still a harsh fact of life during her childhood. She recalled, for instance, how people shopped through mail order catalogues in order to purchase clothes offered in stores where they were not welcome. "The black community, as I remember it, was very closely knit," Clarke said in the San Francisco Examiner: "Before the fabric of this society was torn by racism and lack of education, we all took care of each other. We all watched each other's children." In 1960, the still teenaged Clarke landed a role in the original touring cast of West Side Story, a musical play about rival big city gangs. Following West Side Story, Clarke served as a principal dancer in two noted African American dance troupes: the Katherine Dunham Company and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She was particularly prominent in the Alvin Ailey company and sometimes danced in partnership with Ailey himself. Clarke told Essence magazine that her years as a professional dancer helped her to prepare for the next stages in her career: "The discipline I learned in dance carried over into acting and directing," she said.

On Broadway, Clarke, who was also raised in New York City, appeared in West Side Story (1960), Hallelujah, Baby! (1967), Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope (1972), and Grind (1975), and choreographed Jelly's Last Jam (1992), for which she was nominated for a Tony and Drama Desk Award, and Caroline, or Change (2004). After leaving the Alvin Ailey group in the 1970s, Clarke moved into film and television acting. Her most notable feature film performance may be A Piece of the Action (1977). She also appeared in guest roles on episodes of numerous television drama and comedy series, including The Jeffersons, The Ropers, Hill Street Blues, Three's Company, and As the World Turns. She also appeared in the NBC TV miniseries King (1978), which was based upon the life and ministry of the slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and appeared in the television film Seventeen Again (2000).

After years as a dancer, Clarke was often called in to choreograph various stage and television shows. Besides, she joked in Essence, "I had bills to pay." "As a director, I guess I bring in the female sensibilities. Since I'm also an actress, I've really tried to develop the characterizations so that the performers don't do a little singing here, and some acting there. And coming from a black perspective, I know how we think, how we feel, what we do. I understand the little things. That makes a difference."