Hail the New Puritan

Part documentary, part performance, 'Hail the New Puritan' was the first film to feature dancer and choreographer Michael Clark and his fledgling company, formed when he was in his early twenties after he quit Ballet Rambert.

It's a frustrating film in many ways with a lot of choppy sequences which both detract from the dancing itself and inform it by showing some insight into Clark and his collaborators (notably the outrageous performance artist Leigh Bowery).

Well worth a look (preferably alongside Because We Must, from 1989, and The Late Michael Clark, from 2000), this film puts punk and rock firmly in the dance arena and then shakes it up a bit. Clark himself is impish, cute, and impossibly talented while pushing the boundaries of taste all the time. He might have calmed down a bit as he's got older, but if you wonder what all the fuss was about, this is the place to start.