Simone Clarke

Simone Clarke (born 1970 in Leeds, Yorkshire) is an English ballerina and former Prima Ballerina of English National Ballet company. She retired from professional dance in 2007. In 2006, she was the centre of controversy when it was revealed that she is a member of the British National Party.

Career

Clarke trained at the Royal Ballet School (1981-1988) and then joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet where she was promoted to the 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", and as Cinderella and as Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty".

BNP membership

In an undercover investigation, "The Guardian" newspaper reported on 21 December 2006 that Simone Clarke was a member of the far-right British National Party. [cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/farright/story/0,,1976649,00.html|title=Inside the secret and sinister world of the BNP|publisher="The Guardian"] Clarke, in response to the British media's coverage of this, defended her personal political affiliation, stating that "the BNP is the only party to take a stand against immigration".cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6241763.stm|title=Storm grows over 'BNP ballerina'|publisher="BBC News"] She has since faced calls to be sacked from the English National Ballet by the campaign group Unite Against Fascism who believed it was inappropriate for a potential role model in a far-right party to be funded with public money. "The Guardian" later reported that Clarke said she had received "nearly 300 emails supporting me" since her membership became public. [cite web|url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/farright/story/0,,1980844,00.html|title=BNP ballerina defies rising clamour to sack her|publisher=The Guardian]

On 30 December 2006, Clarke gave her first major interview with the "Mail on Sunday". [cite web| url=http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=425586&in_page_id=1770 |title=The BNP Ballerina|publisher="Mail on Sunday"]

On 12 January 2007, around 40 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. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6255723.stm|title='BNP ballerina' returns to stage|publisher="BBC News"] A counter-protest group was led by Richard Barnbrook, the BNP local councillor for the London constituency of Barking.

Trade Union Representation

She is the Equity trade union "dance representative" for the London region [cite web| url=http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2145128.ece |title=Enter stage far right: 'BNP ballerina' dances again|publisher="The Independent"] and, since November 2007, also an Executive member of the BNP-linked trade union Solidarity [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/otherparties/story/0,,2224939,00.html] .

Private life

Clarke was the girlfriend of Yat-Sen Chang, an ENO dancer of Cuban-Chinese descent, with whom she has a daughter.

On 19 December, 2007 it was announced she planned to marry BNP councillor Richard Barnbrook, whom she had been seeing for more than nine months. cite web|url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/farright/story/0,,2229824,00.html|title='BNP ballerina' to wed fellow far-right activist|publisher="The Guardian"] In statements made before he met Clarke, however, Barnbrook was quoted as saying, apropos her relationship with Chang, "I'm not opposed to mixed marriages but their children are washing out the identity of this country's indigenous people." He has since said that should he and the ballerina wed, "her child will be my child."cite web|url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/farright/story/0,,2229824,00.html|title='BNP ballerina' to wed fellow far-right activist|publisher="The Guardian"]

On 27 April 2008, tabloid News of the World claimed that Barnbrook had simultaneously had a relationship with a Finnish nurse while engaged to Clarke [Amanda Evans [http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/2704_bnp.shtml "BNP boss Richard Barnbrook cheats on Brit with IMMIGRANT"] , "News of the World", 28 April 2008. Retrieved on 28 April 2008.] and on the following day the Daily Mail reported that he is currently married to a Metropolitan police officer [Richard Pendlebury [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=562675&in_page_id=1879&ito=1490 "As he battles to become London's mayor, the bizarre truth about the BNP boss, his ballerina fiance and bitter wife"] , "Daily Mail", 29 April 2008. Retrieved on 29 April 2008.] . Barnbrook has denied both allegations, stating that "the comments the gutter press made about me were lies." [ [http://video.aol.com/video-detail/bnp-london-mayoral-election-richard-barnbrook-speech/2983097923 BNP london mayoral election Richard Barnbrook speech - AOL Video ] ]

References

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060423215906/http://www.yschang.co.uk/ Website of Simone Clarke and Yat-Sen Chang]