Young Ballet Sensation Clark Tippet Dies at 37

Clark Tippet, a ballet principal dancer at 21, a comeback performer at 28 and most recently a promising choreographer, has died in the small Kansas town where he was raised one of 11 children.

Tippet, 37, died Monday night in Parsons--where his father was postmaster and his mother editor of the weekly newspaper--of complications of AIDS.

Tippet, several of whose works were danced in Orange County and one of which was premiered here, spent most of his career with American Ballet Theatre. There, he quickly became known for his dramatic stage presence and the strength he brought to a variety of roles.

But, he told the New York Times in a 1983 interview, after a few meteoric years he became driven by self-doubt and pulled back from performing at that level.

He blamed his malaise on his unanticipated successes, saying “I knew this was not the way everybody else had done it. But I thought I was different. . . .”

(Tippet also noted the long trail he had walked to achievement: He had followed his sisters into the dance studio when he was only 5, left home to study in New York at age 11 and first joined American Ballet Theatre at 17.)

After leaving ABT (where he created the second male lead in Twyla Tharp’s “Push Comes to Shove” and the featured male role of Oedipus in Glen Tetley’s “Sphinx”) in 1978, he danced with the Maryland Ballet where he originated the part of the Psychiatrist in “Equus.”

He also danced with companies in Israel and Australia. He said those geographic flights enabled him to regain his confidence and he rejoined ABT in 1982.

Among the roles he danced were the Husband in “Anastasia,” the High Brahmin in “La Bayadere,” “Raymonda” (the Act II and III Divertissements) and Jiri Kylian’s “Torso.” Orange County audiences saw Tippet with ABT in “The Sleeping Beauty” in 1987 and “Swan Lake” in 1988.

In 1986, working through the ABT’s choreographers’ showcase, he staged his first ballet, “Enough Said,” a battle of the sexes set to a score by George Perle. It was favorably received, and he went on to choreograph “Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1,” in which he danced at its world premiere at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in 1987, “Rigaudon,” a showcase for young ABT soloists, danced by the San Francisco Ballet in Orange County in 1989, “Some Assembly Acquired” (seen locally in 1990), and “S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A.” (Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America”).

ABT had announced the premiere of a new Tippet work for the company’s 1991 engagement at the Performing Arts Center, but later said the piece would not be ready in time.

On Tuesday, Martin Bernheimer, The Times’ music and dance critic, reflected that Tippet was “thrust prematurely into the role of romantic hero and began his career under unfortunate stress. He eventually rebounded, however, as a brilliant character dancer and as a choreographer of rare invention, style and wit, not to mention promise. It is a tragedy that that promise will never be fulfilled.”

In lieu of flowers his family asks contributions to Community Clinical AIDS Program, c/o Burris-Carson-Wall Funeral Home, Box 942 Parsons, Kan. 67357.

Times staff writer Chris Pasles contributed to this report.