Lindsay Kemp, influential dancer and choreographer, dies at 80 in Livorno

Lindsay Kemp, the British choreographer, actor, dancer, mime and director, died in Livorno at the age of 80. Born in Cheshire in 1938 and raised in northern England, he studied at the Bradford College of Arts alongside painter David Hockney, then moved to London to train at the Ballet Rambert school with masters including Sigurd Leeder, Charles Wiedman and Marcel Marceau. He formed his first company, The Lindsay Kemp Dance Mime Company, in 1962. His breakthrough came with a performance at the Edinburgh Festival in 1968. He is widely recognized for his iconic interpretation of the Pierrot mask. Kemp gained international fame beyond dance through his collaboration with David Bowie during the Ziggy Stardust concerts at the Rainbow Theatre in London in August 1972. He later worked with Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel and Mick Jagger. His dreamlike, near-acrobatic dance style is considered a precursor to the Cirque nouveau. In his later years, Kemp lived in Livorno, Italy, which he adopted as his home. He explained in a 2012 interview with Il Tirreno that he fell in love with the city years earlier when performing there with Flowers at the Teatro Goldoni, and felt welcomed by the ordinary people.