Clement Crisp

Clement Andrew Crisp, OBE (21 September 1926 – 1 March 2022) was a British dance critic. He served as dance critic for the Financial Times from 1956 to 2020.

Life and career Crisp was born in Chadwell Heath, Essex on 21 September 1926, although for many years he claimed that he was born in 1931. He first became interested in ballet after seeing a performance of Swan Lake as a child. After attending Oxted School, he spent a year in Bordeaux, France, before studying at Keble College, Oxford. For many years he taught French before becoming dance critic for the Financial Times in 1956. He also served as dance critic of The Spectator in the 1960s. His focus was on ballet, having discovered it as a teenager during the Second World War when his parents took him to the Sadler's Wells Ballet, though he also wrote about other forms of dance and had wide-ranging interests.

Crisp died on 1 March 2022, at the age of 95. Ballet: An Illustrated History (with M. Clarke, London, 1973, revised edition, 1992) Ballet for All (with P. Brinson, London, 1970, revised edition, 1980) Making a Ballet (with Clarke, London, 1974) Ballet in Art (with Clarke, 1976) Design for Ballet (with Clarke, London, 1978) Introducing Ballet (with Clarke, 1978) History of Dance (with Clarke, London, 1981) The Balletgoer's Guide (with Clarke, 1981) Dancer (with Clarke, 1984) Ballerina (with Clarke, 1987) Gerland Dowler (ed.): Clement Crisp Reviews: Six Decades of Dance, (International Dance Writing Foundation, 2021)