Hope Clarke (March 23, 1941 – July 23, 2026) was an American actress, dancer, vocalist, choreographer, and opera director.Billman, Larry (1997). Film Choreographers and Dance Directors : An Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia, With a History and Filmographies, 1893 through 1995. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co. p. 267. . In 1995, she became the first black director of a major U.S. opera production, when she staged Porgy and Bess at the Houston Grand Opera.Backstage Pass (October 17, 2025).“I'M ON MY WAY”: A Century of Porgy and Bess. Houston Grand Opera. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
Early life and education Born in Washington, D.C. to Maurice Aloysius Clarke And Hope Aldridge,Washington Post (November 17, 2005). Maurice Clarke Obituary (2005)."Births, Deaths and Marriage Licenses: Licensed to Marry". The Washington Daily News. January 23, 1936. p. 22. Retrieved June 17, 2025. "Maurice Clarke, 26, of 1645 34th-st nw, and Hope Aldridge, of Jersey City, N. J.""District of Columbia, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1945", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKJ1-4YS9 : Fri Apr 04 14:45:40 UTC 2025), Entry for Maurice Aloysius Clarke and Hope Clarke, 16 Oct 1940. Clarke was raised with her sister, Barbara, in a middle class Black community, a place where people shopped through mail-order catalogues in order to purchase clothes offered in stores where they were not welcomed. “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."San Francisco Examiner, April 30, 1995, p. M10.
Clarke began studying dance with her sister at the Alma Davis Dance School in Washington, DC. She attended Spingarn High School, and graduated in 1959.Bobo, Marian Kenely. Spingarn SHS Notable Trail Blazers: Alumni Achievements. Spingarn Alumni Association. In her senior year, she was a lead dancer with Doris W. Jones and her company.Kriegsman, Alan (April 20, 1987). Tribute for the Troupe: The Capitol Ballet's Spirited Benefit Gala. Washington Post.
She worked as a summer employee for the CIA.Waters, Sylvia and Hope Clarke interview. Jerome Robbins Dance Division Oral History Project. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. April 20, 24, and 25, 2017. 3 streaming files (approximately 4 hours and 55 minutes) : digital + transcript (232 pages). https://legacycatalog.nypl.org/record=b21682817~S1
Career West Side Story to Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope In 1959, Clarke landed a role in the original touring cast of West Side Story. At the urging of her sister, she auditioned for the role, got it, and joined the touring company while it was in Chicago, and remained in the cast until April 23, 1960. In 1961, Clarke appeared in the interracial love story Kwamina starring Brock Peters and Robert Guillaume, and featuring the choreography of Agnes de Mille.
In 1966, Clarke appeared in the Metropolitan Opera's first production of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra.Opening Night, World Premiere, New Production, ... Antony and Cleopatra, Metropolitan Opera House, September 16, 1966. Metropolitan Opera.
In 1967, she played a minor role and was part of the ensemble in Hallelujah, Baby!, which received five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In addition, she starred in the New York performances of Talley Beatty's reformed dance company after his residency in Sweden.Barnes, Clive (September 5, 1967). Dance: The Wizardry of Talley Beatty; Jazz Exponent Seen in Park With Troupe Work on Racial Theme Is Given Its Premiere. New York Times. Accessed July 30, 2026.
In 1968, she played Mamselle Tulip in The House of Flowers at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. In 1969, Clarke had a role in Douglas Turner Ward’s “The Reckoning” at the St. Mark’s Playhouse, an off-off Broadway theater that showcased the work of the Negro Ensemble Company.
In 1970, Clarke was a dancer in “Purlie,” a musical that nominated for five Tony Awards!. In 1972, she was in the musical “Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope,” which was the first Broadway musical to be directed by an African American woman, Vinnette Carroll.Don't bother me, I can't cope, 1972. Gospel Music History Archive. Victory Baptist Church (Los Angeles) Archival Collection. University of Southern California. Libraries. 1972. https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1O3VHSN3?FR_=1&W=1679&H=992
Alvin Ailey, Katherine Dunham, and 5 Plus Clarke served as a principal dancer in the Katherine Dunham Company and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
In the Ailey company, she toured internationally and received positive reviews and audience ovations.Matchan, Linda (July 25, 2021). What made Mr. Ailey Mr. Ailey? New documentary offers a fuller picture of the modern dance pioneer. Washington Post. In the 1960s, she appeared in Louis Johnson's Lament, which is part of Ailey's permanent repertoire.Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Lament. Choreographer: Louis Johnson. Company premiere: New York City Center, 1965. World premiere: New York Ballet Club, 1953. Music: Heilor Vila-Lobos. Lighting: Nicola Cernovitch. Run time: 20 minutes. Retrieved August 1, 2026. In 1978, Clarke co-starred with James Truitte and Carmen de Lavallade in Alvin Ailey's 20th Anniversary reunion performance.Kisselgoff, Anna (December 17, 1978). Dance View. New York Times. Accessed July 29, 2026.
In addition to dancing with Dunham and Ailey, Clarke performed with companies directed by Tally Beatty and Louis Johnson. As well, Clarke was a guest artist with the George Faison Universal Dance Experience and appeared in the company's 1974 New York performances that paid tribute to Billie Holiday and Otis Redding.Kisselgoff, Anna (February 17, 1974). Billie Holiday Story Is Enacted in Dance By Faison Troupe. New York Times. Retrieved August 6, 2026.
Clarke, Michael Blake, Carmen de Lavallade, Sheila Rohan, and other artists co-founded the 5 Plus Ensemble (New Beginnings Theater), a dance company that was created to showcase the work of dancers, choreographers, and musicians who are older than the age of 50.5 Plus Ensemble. The Ensemble: Meet the Founders.
Film and television After appearing on Broadway and around the world as a dancer, Clarke moved to Hollywood, California with the help of actor and friend Raymond St. Jacques. Her most memorable film roles were co-starring with Sidney Poitier in A Piece of the Action (1977); working with St. Jacques and Philip Michael Thomas on the A Book of Numbers' set in Dallas; and portraying Jean-Michel Basquiat's mother, Matilde, in Basquiat (1996). Clarke had a variety of guest roles on tv shows, such as Hill Street Blues, Amen, Another World, As the World Turns, Beat Street, Hart to Hart, Into the Night, The Jeffersons, The Ropers, Sex and the City, and Three's Company. She appeared in the TV miniseries King (1978), which was based upon the life of Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader.
Collaborations with George C. Wolfe In 1986, Broadway director and producer George C. Wolfe hired Clarke to create movement and staging for The Colored Museum.Amistad. Opera in Two Acts. Liner notes. https://nwr-site-liner-notes.s3.amazonaws.com/80627.pdf This production began a long-term Wolfe-Clarke theatrical collaboration; the pair directed and choreographed 10 plays and musicals together, including the opera Amistad,Page, Tim. Amistad Misses the Boat: Slave Tale Reduced to a Well-Scored Sermon. Washington Post. November 30, 1997. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/12/01/amistad-misses-the-boat/68e26cd1-fbdb-488d-bbc2-20b71d06915a/ the Off-Broadway play, Spunk, and several Broadway shows, such as Jelly's Last Jam; Caroline, Or Change; and A Free Man of Color.
In 1992, Clarke earned a Tony Award nomination for “Best Choreography” for her work in Jelly's Last Jam.Richard Christiansen, "`Jelly's Last Jam' Jumps", Chicago Tribune, April 19, 1995. The show grew from New York workshops and a Los Angeles production at the Mark Taper Forum to a Broadway show.
In November 2003, she started work on Caroline, or Change, a musical that features spirituals, blues, Motown, classical music, and Jewish Klezmer. Clarke was responsible for the choreography of the show that began as an Off-Broadway production, received a Broadway production of 126 performances in 2004, received six Tony Award nominations, and had a two-month run at the Lyttleton Theatre, National Theatre in London, winning the Olivier Award for Best New Musical.
In 2010, Clarke choreographed A Free Man of Color.
More Broadway, Off Broadway, and Regional Theater In 1985, Clarke played “Ruby” in the musical Grind and worked with Lester Wilson.
In 1995, Clarke choreographed William Shakespeare's “The Tempest.”
In 1997, Clarke adapted and directed Nobody Says Baby Like A Black Man, a dramatic collage of African American love poems, at the American Place Theater in New York.Lefkowitz, David (February 6, 1997). Stonewall Jackson's House Begins Previews at American Place. Three world-premiere plays about the African-American experience will comprise the 1997 season of New York's American Place Theatre. Playbill.
In 2017, she choreographed, Fly, a play about the Tuskegee Airmen. The show was produced by the Lincoln Center Institute and toured to several venues, including Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, Florida Studio Theatre, St. Louis Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Ford's Theatre, Vineyard Playhouse, and Crossroads Theatre.Alabama Shakespeare Festival Soars with FLY, Celebrating the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, Jan. 26-Feb 11. 2017. Alabama Shakespeare Festival. December 20, 2017. https://asf.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FLY-PR.pdf
In 2025, Clarke choreographed Blues in the Night at the Arizona Theatre Company.McLemore, Mark (January 30, 2025). Clickety-clack's, a-echoin' back, The Blues in the Night" at Arizona Theatre Company. AZPM. Retrieved April 28, 2025.Encila-Celdran, Robert (February 3, 2025). Review: Sultry, Soulful, and Spectacular: BLUES IN THE NIGHT Delivers at Arizona Theatre Company. Originally published in BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved April 28, 2025.
Porgy & Bess: The Opera In 1995, Clarke directed the Houston Grand Opera production of Porgy & Bess, the first African American to stage a major professional U.S. staging of “Porgy and Bess. Regarded as America’s greatest opera, the two million dollar Houston Grand production toured throughout the United States, as well as performances in France, Italy, and Japan.
In 2012, Clarke directed a Morgan State University production of Porgy & Bess at the Murphy Fine Arts Center.
Quotable “I want African Americans who come to see the opera to be proud that an African American is directing the production and to recognize the people on stage.” "Blacks and women have been locked out of directing major productions for too long. It's time for us not only to tell our stories but to direct them."Essence, August 1995, p. 56. "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."San Diego Union-Tribune, March 5, 1995, p. D1. “In my production, everybody works. Everybody has some type of job. Just because you are poor doesn't mean you have to be slovenly or ignorant."Opera News, January 21, 1995, pp. 12–16.
Death Clarke died in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on July 23, 2026, at the age of 85. Tony Nominated Choreographer and Actor Hope Clarke Dies at 85 Broadway World
Honors and awards 2020 – Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, elected to a three-year term to the Board of Directors.