GUCCIStories IN TOKYO!

The launch of Act VI with dancer Michael Clark on a trip to Tokyo in a quest for creativity and personal expression.

by team Paris Social diary, photography by Courtesy | 19 March, 2018

GQ and Gucci announced today the second season in five episodes of The Performers series produced by Dylan Jones, editor of the UK edition of GQ. In 2017, GQ and Gucci launched The Performers to document the pilgrimage of five influential men to unexpected places that forged their spirit and vision. In 2018, creative collaboration has been renewed for five more episodes that will continue to explore the influence and inspiration of some of the most creative creations ever.

The continuation of this collaboration is a wonderful opportunity to highlight The Performers, these culturally relevant and inspiring talents, referees of taste, class and creativity,” said Dylan Jones, Editor-in-Chief of the edition. British GQ and executive producer of the series. “Michael Clark talking about his insatiable creativity is a great way to launch Act VI.”

Act VI inaugurates the return of the series The Performers with Scottish dancer and choreographer Michael Clark conducting daring and immersive performances in love hotels in Tokyo. Clark began dancing at the age of four, before taking vocational training at the Royal Ballet School in London. “I could not fit in,” he recalls about this experience. “Not because of the work ethic, but because it was the end of the 70s, at the beginning of the punk period, and I was attracted by this energy, by this chaos.”

Clark then founded his own dance company, the Michael Clark Company, and worked with some of Britain’s most outstanding post-punk outsiders, including performance artist Leigh Bowery, and Mark E. Smith. , the singer of the band The Fall.

After a first discovery of Japan touring in the 80s with his mother and Bowery, Clark returned to this country for this trip filmed by director Johnny Hardstaff. “I think the Japanese discovered me before I discovered myself,” he says. “They took my job seriously, which meant a lot to me. Returning to this country is a poignant experience. Faithful to his anti-establishment aesthetic, Clark channeled Bowie into a daring and colorful performance with a styling from Luke Day, fashion director of the UK edition of GQ.