Clark Tippet, 37; Achieved Ballet Stardom by Age 21

Clark Tippet, a ballet star at 21, a comeback performer at 28 and most recently a promising choreographer, died Monday night in the small Kansas town where he was raised as one of 11 children.

Tippet was 37 and died in Parsons--where his father was postmaster and his mother editor of the weekly newspaper--of the complications of AIDS.

Tippet spent most of his career with American Ballet Theater where he quickly became known for his dramatic stage presence and the strength he brought to a variety of roles.

But, he told the New York Times in a 1983 interview, after a few meteoric years he became driven by self-doubt and pulled back from performing at that level.

He blamed his malaise on his unanticipated successes, saying, “I knew this was not the way everybody else had done it. But I thought I was different.”

(Tippet also noted the long trail he had walked to achievement: He had followed his sisters into the dance studio when he was 5, left home to study in New York at age 11 and joined American Ballet Theater at 17.)

After leaving ABT (where he created the second male lead in Twyla Tharp’s “Push Comes to Shove” and the featured male role of Oedipus in Glen Tetley’s “Sphinx”) in 1978, he danced with the Maryland Ballet where he originated the part of the psychiatrist in “Equus.”

He also danced with companies in Israel and Australia. He said those geographic flights enabled him to regain his confidence and he rejoined ABT in 1982.

He mastered the role of the husband in “Anastasia,” the high brahmin in “La Bayadere” and the dancing master in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s “Cinderella.” His other major roles included “Interludes,” “Raymonda” (the Act II and III divertissements) and “Torso.”

In 1986, working through the ABT’s choreographers’ showcase, he staged his first ballet, “Enough Said,” a battle of the sexes set to a score by George Perle. It was favorably received and he went on to choreograph the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 and “S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A.” (Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America) and “Rigaudon,” a showcase for young ABT soloists.

He also continued to dance, particularly as Drosselmeyer in “The Nutcracker” each December.

On Tuesday, Martin Bernheimer, The Times’ music critic, reflected that Tippet was “thrust prematurely into the role of romantic hero and began his career under unfortunate stress. He eventually rebounded, however, as a brilliant character dancer and as a choreographer of rare invention, style and wit, not to mention promise. It is a tragedy that that promise will never be fulfilled.”

In lieu of flowers his family asks contributions to Community Clinical AIDS Program, care of Burris-Carson-Wall Funeral Home, Box 942 Parsons, Kan. 67357.