16 Facts About Simone Clarke

Simone Clarke FDI, CDE, DIP Cecchetti was born on 1970 in Leeds, Yorkshire and is an English ballerina and former prima ballerina of English National Ballet company.

Simone Clarke retired from professional dance in 2007 and opened her own school, the Yorkshire Ballet Academy, in Leeds in 2008.

Simone Clarke left her home in Leeds at the age of 10 to begin training at the Royal Ballet School in London after winning one of 23 places sought by 4,500 entrants.

Simone Clarke trained at the Royal Ballet School and then joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet where she was promoted to first soloist in 1995.

Simone Clarke has performed as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and as Cinderella and as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty and the Dormouse in Alice in Wonderland.

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Simone Clarke has made several television appearances including Peter Wright's Coppelia and The Nutcracker, The Generation Game, Ballet Hell, Blue Peter and the lead ballerina in Men in Tights.

Simone Clarke was the Equity trade union "dance representative" for the London region and, from November 2007, an executive member of the trade union Solidarity.

In 2006, Simone Clarke's name was on a list of British National Party members leaked by The Guardian newspaper when one of its journalists, Ian Cobain, posed as a member.

Simone Clarke defended her personal political affiliation, stating that "the BNP is the only party to take a stand against immigration".

Simone Clarke faced calls to be sacked from the English National Ballet by the campaign group Unite Against Fascism which believed it was inappropriate for a potential role model in a far-right party to be funded with public money.

The Guardian later reported that Simone Clarke had received "nearly 300 emails supporting me" since her membership became public.

On 12 January 2007, around forty people staged a protest outside the London Coliseum theatre, where Simone Clarke was to perform that night playing the lead in the romantic classic Giselle in her first performance since The Guardian reported on her BNP membership.

Simone Clarke was supported by actors' union Equity, which said it was illegal to sack someone for their political beliefs.

In 2008, Simone Clarke opened the Yorkshire Ballet Company, a private dance school, and went into teaching.

Simone Clarke was in a relationship with Yat-Sen Chang, an ENB dancer of Cuban-Chinese descent, with whom she has a daughter, Olivia Chang Simone Clarke, an award winning dancer.

Simone Clarke was briefly engaged to the artist and former BNP councillor Richard Barnbrook.