Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

survival. I amazed and dazzled them—like a bright
light trained in wild dogs’ eyes.”
After attending the Bradford School of Arts and
Media (then already over a century old, it also
produced David Hockney), Kemp tried his luck as an
actor in the West End but found difficulty standing
out. He was balding and pixie-ish, and his features
without makeup, feathers and wigs seemed small.
Kemp really found his voice when it came to mime.
In his twenties, he moved to Edinburgh, Scotland,
and studied with the famous French mime Marcel
Marceau. Marceau bolstered his confidence and
showed him how to use his body effectively. When
he returned to London, Kemp founded his own
performance troupe. He saw staid and joyless
productions and decided that they were ready for a
little camping up. He’d see the dancers chainsmoking
and cussing offstage, but when they were
onstage, they’d pretend to be sculpted and angelic
and sincere.
“Camp sees everything in quotation marks,”
Susan Sontag wrote in “Notes on Camp” in 1964.
“It’s not a lamp but a ‘lamp,’ not a woman but a
‘woman.’ To perceive camp in objects and persons
is to understand Being as Playing—a role. It is the
farthest extension in sensibility of the metaphor of life
as theater.” Using this sensibility and combining it
with real diligence as far as the body and utter
commitment to the performance, Kemp and his
collaborator Birkett torpedoed the highbrow dance
recitals with bawdy humor and pieces based on