"My background is somewhat unusual, as I trained to be a ballet dancer. I worked in the theatre for eight or nine years as a contemporary dancer. But as an actor one does read Shakespeare and does try to learn the classics"
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The first thing Kempe does here is refuse the neat biography. “Somewhat unusual” is a strategic understatement: he’s positioning himself as an actor who didn’t come up through the expected pipeline, but he’s not romanticizing that difference either. Ballet and contemporary dance aren’t presented as quirky trivia; they’re credentials in discipline, timing, and bodily intelligence - the stuff theatre runs on, even when it pretends it’s all about voice and text.
There’s a quiet class and legitimacy anxiety humming underneath. “But as an actor one does read Shakespeare” lands like a ritual statement, less personal confession than professional catechism. He’s acknowledging a hierarchy where movement work can be treated as secondary, and where “the classics” function as a passport into seriousness. The phrasing “one does” is telling: it’s the language of social codes, the things you’re supposed to do to be admitted into the room.
The cultural context is a performance industry that loves “multi-hyphenates” while still policing prestige. Dance is often framed as instinct and body; Shakespeare as intellect and canon. Kempe’s sentence stitches those worlds together, implying that technique isn’t only verbal and that classical training isn’t only textual. It’s also a subtle rebuke to the idea that acting begins and ends at the page: his foundation is years of theatre labor, then the sanctioned literary homework. The intent is credibility, but the subtext is bigger - a bid to expand what counts as “real” acting without asking permission.
There’s a quiet class and legitimacy anxiety humming underneath. “But as an actor one does read Shakespeare” lands like a ritual statement, less personal confession than professional catechism. He’s acknowledging a hierarchy where movement work can be treated as secondary, and where “the classics” function as a passport into seriousness. The phrasing “one does” is telling: it’s the language of social codes, the things you’re supposed to do to be admitted into the room.
The cultural context is a performance industry that loves “multi-hyphenates” while still policing prestige. Dance is often framed as instinct and body; Shakespeare as intellect and canon. Kempe’s sentence stitches those worlds together, implying that technique isn’t only verbal and that classical training isn’t only textual. It’s also a subtle rebuke to the idea that acting begins and ends at the page: his foundation is years of theatre labor, then the sanctioned literary homework. The intent is credibility, but the subtext is bigger - a bid to expand what counts as “real” acting without asking permission.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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