- Actress, dancer, vocalist, and choreographer best describe Hope Clarke, who began her career performing in "West Side Story". She appeared in seven other Broadway shows that include "Purlie", "Hallelujah Baby", and "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope".
As a dancer she toured internationally with Alvin Ailey and Black Nativity, and with the legendary Katherine Dunham. In addition to her choreography for "Jelly's Last Jam" (for which she and co-choreographer and star of the musical, Gregory Hines were nominated for a Tony Award), she choreographed such musicals as "The Colored Museum" and "Caucasian Chalk Circle" at the Public Theater.
- IMDb mini biography by: L. J. Allen-2 - Hope Clarke was an actress, dancer, vocalist, choreographer, and director. Broadway: Jelly's Last Jam (Tony nomination best choreography), The Tempest, Caroline or Change, and A Free Man of Color. Regional: A Christmas Carol (Hartford Stage, Ailey Theatre), Fly (Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, Florida Studio Theatre, St. Louis Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Ford's Theatre, Vineyard Playhouse, Crossroads Theatre), The Roads to Home (Primary Stages), Grey Gardens (Center Theatre Group, Bay Street Theatre), Resurrection (Philadelphia Theatre, Hartford Stage), The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove (Goodman Theatre), South Pacific (Pioneer Theatre), The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue (Hartford Stage). Clarke began her career as a dancer and performed on Broadway in West Side Story, Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope, and Grind, among others. She was the first African-American and first African-American woman to direct and choreograph a major staging of Porgy and Bess (for the Houston Grand Opera).
- IMDb mini biography by: Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Official Site Bio
- Was nominated for Broadway's 1992 Tony Award as Best Choreographer, along with collaborators Ted L. Levy and Gregory Hines, for "Jelly's Last Jam."
- Former member of Alvin Ailey's dance company
- She was awarded the 1988 Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Choreography for "The Colored Museum" at the Mark Taper Forum Theater in Los Angeles, California.
- Gregory Hines, Ted L. Levy and she were awarded the 1993 New York Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical for "Jelly's Last Jam" on Broadway in New York City.
- She was awarded the 1991 NAACP Image Award for Best Choreography for "Jelly's Last Jam" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
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