'BNP ballerina' due to perform

12 April 2012

"BNP ballerina" Simone Clarke is due to perform in public for the first time since being exposed as a member of the far right organisation.

Clarke, a principal dancer with the English National Ballet, was outed by a newspaper last month as a British National Party member.

She is due to dance the lead in a matinee performance of Giselle at the London Coliseum.

Members of the Unite Against Fascism coalition have organised a noon protest outside the Covent Garden venue.

"We are calling on all those who have an appreciation for the arts, music and dance to demand that the promotion of racist and fascist politics are incompatible with a leading arts institution such as the English National Ballet, to speak out against the association of artists with the BNP, and to demand that Simone Clarke should be removed from her position," a spokesman said.

Clarke, 36, was exposed last month as a card-carrying BNP member and went on to give an interview defending her political beliefs.

She supports a crackdown on immigration despite the fact her dance partner and boyfriend is a Cuban of Chinese descent.

"I'm not a particularly political person but I read the manifesto and I took it on face value.

"Sometimes it feels as though the BNP are the only ones willing to take a stand. I have been labelled a racist and a fascist because I have a view on immigration and I mean mass immigration but isn't that something that a lot of people worry about?" she said.

The broadcasting workers union Bectu called on the English National Ballet to distance itself from any pro-BNP comments made by the ballerina. The union has not called for the ballerina to be sacked but said it was "disappointed" that the English National Ballet had not issued any statement on the controversy.

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