Tributes paid to dancer Lindsay Kemp

A long-time collaborator of dancer Lindsay Kemp has described the mime artist’s work as an “invitation to dream” following his death at the age of 80.

The influential choreographer was known for tutoring singers David Bowie and Kate Bush during his career.

David Haughton, who worked with Kemp as a performer and codirector for 45 years, confirmed he died suddenly at his home in Livorno in Italy.

Haughton told the Press Association: “Although this is a sad day in many ways, if this had to happen it did in the best possible way, because it was incredibly quick. No warning. No illness.

“He had a very happy last month being busy and creative. He had spent the day working and dancing and rehearsing. And in the evening, he was with a group of friends at home, he suddenly said ‘I think I’d better lie down for a little bit’ and a minute later he’d gone.”

After studying under expressionist dancer Hilde Holger and French mime Marcel Marceau, Kemp formed his own dance company in the 1960s.

He choreographed and performed during Bowie’s celebrated Ziggy Stardust concerts at London’s Rainbow Theatre in 1972. He also appeared in the promotional video for the musician’s song John, I’m Only Dancing.

Kemp also made cameo appearances as a pantomime dame in the film Velvet Goldmine in 1998 and as pub landlord in 1973 horror film The Wicker Man.

Haughton said: “He will be remembered in many ways by different people because his work was like an invitation to dream for the public.

“He will be remembered certainly as somebody who changed many things about theatre and mixing up the difference between straight theatre and dance and mime. That’s all fairly normal now but in the 1970s and 80s that wasn’t such a granted thing.”

Stars from the world of theatre, music and TV have paid tribute to Kemp, among them comedian Julian Clary who wrote on Twitter: “Rest in Peace Lindsay.”

Soft Cell singer Marc Almond and the actor Nicholas Pegg shared a photo of themselves on stage with Kemp at an event in 2016.

Pegg wrote: “Lindsay Kemp was one of life’s originals. An artist to the tips of his fingers, a mentor and inspiration for titans like David Bowie and Kate Bush, a prodigiously talented performer, and a truly delightful man.”

He was born in Cheshire in 1938 and raised by his mother in South Shields. His father, a merchant seaman, was lost at sea in 1940.

Kemp was a performer at heart.