Earlier on this year, while, due to Coronavirus, we were still caught in between hard or mild lockdowns all over Europe, Yos Clark was busy working on a personal choreography. The twenty-six-year-old Ivorian dancer based in the UK, eventually published the results of his efforts in a video on YouTube.
Entitled "The Other One", the video features Clark sinuously dancing in a red crocheted dress by knitwear designer Laura Theiss on the notes of "Transmission for Jehn: Gnossienne No 1" by Tierney Malone and Geoffrey Muller.
The metallic yarns of the dress shine on Clark's body, as he sinuously moves, pirouettes and performs perfect arabesques. Yet there is more behind the choreography, there is more behind the dress he chose for this performance and more behind his movements.
"The Other Side" is dedicated to Clark's mother, who, diagnosed with a last stage cervical cancer in 2017 died a few months later, just days before Clark's birthday. The choreography is therefore a dichotomic representation, with Clark playing the role of caring mother, a fighter in pain, and of a son in agony, longing for her love and hugs as she fades away.
In "Lamentation" Martha Graham encased in a minimalist lavender jersey tube that left her face, hands and feet exposed, allowing her to sinuously bend and twist, expressed through her movements pain and sorrow. Clark does the same with Theiss' design, inhabiting the crocheted dress in his role of mother and son, elevating the garment to performance costume.
In his choreography there is also his story and passion for dance: Clark was a child when he fell in love with ballet and taught himself ballet watching videos on YouTube. Then, through a fortuitous encounter on Facebook with a French ballet teacher he was able to take some classes via Skype.
In 2016 he performed at "L'Afrique a un Incroyable Talent", the Françafrique syndication of Got Talent, where he finally met his French teacher on stage. Clark was later offered a scholarship for a dance school in Warrington, where he moved in 2018. While as a child Clark was more interested in ballet, nowadays he feels more intrigued by the possibilities of contemporary dance. Dancing remains his passion as proved also by his Instagram page, in which Clark seems to reaffirm he can't sleep, eat or even walk without dancing.
The future? Obviously keeping on dancing, starting his own company, becoming a choreographer, but also a photographer and video producer, and, last but not least, opening a dance school in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.
When did you fall in love with dance?
Yos Clark: It started when I was eight years old and there was this Spanish series on TV called "Un, Dos, Tres" (Un paso adelante). It followed the lives of young dancers and actors at a performing arts school. The only parts that interested me were the dance parts and in particular the technicalities of ballet, the way these kids seemed really disciplined in what they were doing and the way they showed passion while dancing. From then on, I fell in love. At that stage, I couldn't really start dancing because I didn't know if there were any proper ballet classes in Abidjan, besides my father wasn't wealthy enough to pay for them. So, I never talked about it, but kept this passion to myself.
How did you come to learning ballet via Skype and which was the most difficult aspect of learning it in this way?
Yos Clark: After I opened my Facebook profile I started inviting every dancer I found. If the profile said "dance teacher" I just clicked on "Add Friends". I ended up inviting a ballet teacher who lives in France – Michele Darcy. I used to post pictures of me doing ballet poses and stretching exercises. She saw all that and reached out asking me if I had ever taken any ballet classes or if I would have liked to do so. That's how everything started: we had classes twice a week on Skype in the living room. It was really difficult because at that point, before taking classes with her I didn't know anything about ballet. What I did was looking at things online and reproduce the movements. With her I discovered that there was more behind ballet and I started understanding the movements more. It was really complicated because, first and foremost, the connection wasn't so good. Besides, there was nobody there to correct me: she could see me on the screen, but you must have somebody next to you who can tell you if you're doing a step in the proper way. So, I would say that being alone while taking the classes was the main struggle for me.
What happened after those classes?
Yos Clark: I started those online classes in 2013 and we did them for two years. It became too difficult to work in this way, so it was impossible to continue. I eventually found some dance classes in Abidjan and a teacher offered me free classes because I was the only boy really interested in all that. I continued like that for a year and then I moved on to another place where there were older girls with a bit more of a ballet background, so I could learn from them. That stage helped me really a lot as I started developing myself and understanding what I was doing. Then I auditioned for a show produced by Abass Zein, and we did some work together. I was also invited on TV shows in Ivory Coast to talk about dance.
When did you move to the UK?
Yos Clark: In 2018. Josephine Gauld, the British ambassador to Côte d'Ivoire, watched one of the shows where they told my story. She found a scholarship for me to study in the UK. I was originally meant to leave in 2017, but visa issues meant I had to postpone my trip and I eventually left in Setptember 2018 for just six months. I went back to the Ivory Coast in February 2019 because of my visa and after eleven months I was able to go back again to the UK in January 2020. That period of time was really difficult because at some point I was like losing hope of being able to continue my studies in the UK. I was literally asking myself if I had chosen the right path.
Can you tell us the story behind the video "The Other One"?
Yos Clark: It is a dance film inspired by the life of my mother who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2017 and passed away shortly after that. This film is more of a tribute to her, because she was a true fighter during her life. She always tried to be independent, not counting on any man to live or pay her bills. When I lost her, I wasn't really ready as we didn't have enough time together. My first approach to this project was during a choreographic competition at school. In that case my reference was Carmen, an independent, wild and free woman. The only colour that I could see the dancer wearing was red.
How did you choose the dress for your performance and in which way do you use it to express pain?
Yos Clark: While creating the choreography I remembered seeing a red mid-length dress from Laura Theiss, a designer I modelled for during London Fashion Week in an On-Off presentation. So I contacted her to get the dress. When I got the dress I felt there was a connection. The garment fluidly embraced my movements, the material used to make the dress with those shiny threads running through the silhouette beautifully represented flowing blood, while the crochet stitches with their holes became metaphors for wounds and scars. In this film, I embody my mother and myself expressing each other's pain. The pain of losing her and the pain and suffering she endured when she was ill. My movements were inspired by women choreographers such as the legendary Pina Bausch and Crystal Pite with a touch of flamenco movements. These two women have something special, something very profound that my heart can relate to when I watch their works and that I feel is the essence of dance.
Who inspires you nowadays?
Yos Clark: As I said, I love Crystal Pite. The way she moves is incredible. She comes up with smooth, fluid movements that are really astonishing. She's an inspiration and she's my top choreographer at the moment. She has a company, Kidd Pivot, that does very interesting work. Then there's an Australian dancer called James Vu Anh Pham who is also amazing, he has so much fluidity and so much passion.
You mentioned modelling during London Fashion Week: would you like to explore the possibilities that fashion can offer you more in future?
Yos Clark: Fashion has always been something that I enjoy. Generally, even when I go to a shop or a store to buy clothes, I am literally dancing into the garments I'm buying to see what they offer me. This is my way to approach fashion – discovering what kind of inspiration I can get from that. I only buy things when I feel they represent something for me. Fashion for me is also another part of dance because, when you dance, your movements are followed by a garment or by a fabric, the materials elevate your movements and add a new dimension to your performance. That's what I like about fashion.
Would you like to become a choreographer one day?
Yos Clark: Yes, I'm really interested in choreography. Back in Abidjan, when I first met Michelle Darcy online, I was literally choreographing myself and at times teaching to kids. When we had a show at the end of the year, I was always choreographing for that. I like creating movements and I hope I will get the chance to work with different choreographers and start my own company as well.
What are your plans for the future?
Yos Clark: I want to travel to different countries and discover as much as possible. I also want to work more on myself and take my story to people through my art. What I learnt from life is that, yes it’s good to have impressive movements, but if there's no meaning behind them, if there's no realness, it's just a sterile dance. But I think that dance has to be much more personal. There's no better way than to dance and be yourself so that people can relate to you and your story. When I dance I'm an open book and that's what I want to bring to people with my performances.
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