Ian Macmillan Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 The news, above, has appeared within the past hour. There is confirmation of a sort here, but nothing firmer that I've found so far: https://amarketnews.co/2022/03/02/death-obituary-am-reading-the-sad-news-that-clement-crisp-the-doyen-of-dance-critics-has-died-at-the-age-of-90/ 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magda Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Alastair Macaulay https://www.instagram.com/p/CamOh9xAk8A/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 RIP 🙏🏽 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scheherezade Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Sad news indeed. His wit, knowledge and individuality will be greatly missed. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 RIP Clement Crisp 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 For me, the best dance critic ever to wield a pen! I was given his book of reviews for Christmas and have been dripping into it ever since. Just wonderful. RIP Mr Crisp. 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 52 minutes ago, Magda said: Alastair Macaulay https://www.instagram.com/p/CamOh9xAk8A/ Hello Magda and welcome out of the lurking shadows, albeit with sad news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted March 2, 2022 Author Share Posted March 2, 2022 I can't get Instagram, but Mr Macaulay is quoted here on Norman Lebrecht's Slipped Disc site: https://slippedisc.com/2022/03/the-doyen-of-london-critics-has-died/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-doyen-of-london-critics-has-died Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Oh that is sad news. Reading his book reminds me of how much I missed his reviews when he retired. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeannette Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Very sad news! May he Rest In Peace. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 A brilliant, perceptive and stimulating writer who was also (often) very funny. Very much missed. May he RIP. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl H Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 I am so sorry to read this, he was my favourite ballet critic, his review was always the one I most wanted to read. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 I am so glad I have the book, a fitting memorial to the man. Thank you Mr Crisp for all your insights, wit, beautiful writing and many laughs. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmhopton Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 13 minutes ago, Mary said: I am so glad I have the book, a fitting memorial to the man. Thank you Mr Crisp for all your insights, wit, beautiful writing and many laughs. Yes indeed, Mary. I feel just the same. Love the book. No memorial could be better. I can't imagine there will ever be another ballet critic with his longevity but, more importantly with his wit, humour and stylish way of writing. Would be wonderful if someone could eventually edit another collection, preferably with some more recent reviews. That would be amazing and a very fitting tribute. I wonder if the next RB (and possibly BRB) performance/s will be dedicated to him. That would be very appropriate. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane S Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 According to the Guardian obituary he was actually five years older than he claimed - 95! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 A tribute on the ROH website: https://www.roh.org.uk/news/remembering-clement-crisp-1931-2022 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 12 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said: A tribute on the ROH website: https://www.roh.org.uk/news/remembering-clement-crisp-1931-2022 Clement's dates are given as 1931 to 2022, yet the text says he was 95. Odd! But, for me, his erudite prose was for ever young and spirited. There is no critic like him and there probably never will be. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diandri Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Before the rise of the internet made dance reviews widely available online Mr Crisp was the critic that I sought out the most often & my pile of cuttings of his writings was extensive & I dread to think of how much money I have spent on tickets over the years booking for things that he recommended that I might not have opted to see otherwise which has proved quite an education in itself. His writing was brilliantly incisive & naturally funny (as proved by the recent collection of his writings)- it is indeed a fitting tribute to his long career & one hopes another volume will be forthcoming as I'm sure there's a ton of material to choose from. I only had the pleasure of meeting him once; at the Bournonville Festival in Copenhagen in 2005 & he was as charming & erudite as I had hoped. He will be missed. RIP. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted March 3, 2022 Share Posted March 3, 2022 Also, because of his age, he watched and spoke to many of the legends of the past. He knew how a certain ballet should be performed, because he had probably seen the original. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 The sad death prompted me to go and find the Clement Crisp interview I ran on Balletco back in 2001. Ismene Brown, then the Telegraph dance critic, did the interview based on questions posed by Balletco readers. It's rather gobsmacking reading and the exchanges with Brown delicious as she pushes him to elaborate etc. Of course, some will find his approach beyond arrogant. Note the presentation is the way it was 20 years ago:https://web.archive.org/web/20050720082435/http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_01/dec01/ismene_b_int_clement_c.htm The piece prompted a thread on the Ballet.co Postings Pages, as the Balletco forum was known at the time:https://web.archive.org/web/20060513020850/http://www.danze.co.uk/dcforum/happening/2393.html Some quotes to whet your appetite: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IB: Jim asks: “What are your feelings about the future of the Royal Ballet?” CC: My feelings are of despair. I really think the Royal Ballet has been denatured... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On Darcey Bussell and Miyako Yoshida... "They are no more than First Soloists, essentially, if we look at performances of ‘Swan Lake’, ‘Beauty’, ‘Giselle’, ‘Coppélia’, with the eye of time and by the absolute standard of the world." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In an exchange about choreographers, IB says "I also think William Forsythe is extremely important." CC: If you switch off the machine, we will talk about Forsythe. [He then lays into him with energy.] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CC on reviewing: "Kiss ’em or kill ’em. There is no point in half-measures. People who write half-measures, like a lot of critics nowadays, are just boring. And not only boring, but lying." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At some point this and other Balletco pieces and sections should hopefully return. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shade Posted March 6, 2022 Share Posted March 6, 2022 Thank you Bruce really interesting reading, especially the Forum posts. The posts seem very forthright - today’s style seems quite different! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted March 6, 2022 Author Share Posted March 6, 2022 Bruce: Some once-familiar names in those forum posts! And yes, many of them would raise eyebrows today, to say the least. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizbie1 Posted March 6, 2022 Share Posted March 6, 2022 Some familiar sounding quotes in the Telegraph obituary 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 On 06/03/2022 at 16:21, Ian Macmillan said: Bruce: Some once-familiar names in those forum posts! And yes, many of them would raise eyebrows today, to say the least. On 06/03/2022 at 12:41, Shade said: Thank you Bruce really interesting reading, especially the Forum posts. The posts seem very forthright - today’s style seems quite different! That's what struck me as well! Different times and different moderation - it was still relatively early times for forums, and I was pretty liberal on free expression and wanted to encourage the broadest participation. Some moderation was in private, typically writing to people beseeching them to be civil etc, and ditto in public, but I didn't feel the need to jump in on this occasion. That said, the posts and jousting are interesting, I think. The names bring back memories. At least one person in the thread was later banned - they threatened to murder Eric Taub for a review they didn't like...! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 On 05/03/2022 at 19:52, Bruce said: At some point this and other Balletco pieces and sections should hopefully return. That's good to know: the dance world has been poorer for their absence. On 06/03/2022 at 12:41, Shade said: Thank you Bruce really interesting reading, especially the Forum posts. The posts seem very forthright - today’s style seems quite different! Yes, indeed Difficult to conceive of many dance critics these days having such a depth of background experience as people like Crisp and his contemporaries and near-contemporaries - or if they do, it doesn't tend to be much in evidence in their reviews. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 I have just read the interview and the related thread. It was a couple of years before my discovery of the site, but some of those names were still around when I did find it, and for a while to come. I wonder what happened to them all! Yes, some very robust words from Mr Crisp and all the posters. Times have indeed changed in 20 years! Many thanks for posting, Bruce. Always great to see snippets from ballet.co.uk! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiona Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 I wonder what Mr Crisp would have thought about today's Royal Ballet dancers? Surely he would have been impressed? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 I was wondering that as well - or perhaps he wouldn't have classed some of them as ballerinas? (Or both?) Who knows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now