At 43, Christian Clark casts a long shadow over Terminus Modern Ballet
When ballet dancer Christian Clark was 16 and an apprentice with Atlanta Ballet, he toured with the company to London, portraying one of the Lost Boys in “Peter Pan.”
“I was on cloud nine,” he said. “That was the moment I realized what a career in dance could be.”
Now 43, Clark is a much-loved senior member of Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre, a boutique ensemble he and four other former Atlanta Ballet dancers founded in 2016. He’s also a respected dance educator, a husband and father, a soccer dad, a personal trainer and co-creator of a cross-training app for dancers. A Lost Boy no more.
Clark will perform in co-founder Tara Lee’s ballet “Tiny Universe” during the company’s season opener, “Out of the Box IV,” Saturday through Sept. 27 at the Tula Arts Center in Buckhead.
Artistic director and co-founder John Welker remembers seeing Clark for the first time in Atlanta Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.” “He was 10 years old and dancing in the party scene,” Welker, 50, said. “His talent was evident. He just exuded it. He had a natural musicality and presence.”
Terminus co-founder Rachel Van Buskirk met Clark at the Atlanta Ballet School (now the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education) when they were both in their teens. After joining the company, they developed a partnership that flourished over the years and reached its peak at Terminus. In 2024, dance critic Robin Wharton praised their “almost intuitive sense for moving together in complex neoclassical and contemporary pas de deux.”
Clark has a high level of physical intelligence, Van Buskirk said, which allows him to quickly grasp the nuances when choreographers set new works on the company. “He is such a fluid, intuitive and effortless dancer, especially for someone so powerful.”
Tall and long-limbed, Clark has always been an impressive presence on stage, from his leading roles in Atlanta Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” and “Roméo et Juliette” to his dynamic performances in the Terminus works “Lore” and “Roam.”
Georgia Dalton, 29, joined Terminus in 2023. “Partnering with Christian feels like flying,” she said. “He’s given me the opportunity to truly feel free and explore my own artistry because he is so steady and consistent. He is not only a genuine and mindful person but is spectacular to watch in the studio and on stage.”
Van Buskirk, 40, left the company in 2024 and is now pursuing a master’s in arts leadership. She recalls how Clark’s pursuit of excellence is interwoven with passion and a sense of fun, a rare quality in ballet’s sometimes tense rehearsal studios. “He is very mindful of keeping it professional,” she said, “but also likes to keep joy in the space.”
Welker agrees: “If he sees morale is down in rehearsal, he’s the first person to pick everyone up with a few encouraging words. He’s been that heartbeat for us since the get-go.”
Clark is the only original “Terminator” who still performs. These days, he says, his ankles and knees are more painful than they used to be when he dances, especially in jumps, but he has no immediate plans to retire. For the company’s 2026-27 season at least, his compelling stage presence, partnering skills and behind-the-scenes work will continue to enrich the company.
Terminus celebrates its 10th anniversary this season, a significant milestone because launching the company from the ground up wasn’t easy, Clark said. The artistic vision he and the other founders developed was clear: to tell stories through dance, blending contemporary movement with ballet classicism. But how to start? It was just the five of them. They had minimal funding and no permanent rehearsal or performance space.
From the beginning, they did everything together, from creating new ballets to acquiring sound equipment and dance flooring, designing costumes, handling the box office and marketing their concerts. Clark still manages the website. “We were barely treading water,” he recalled. “We were so tired. But we had a blast even on the hardest days.”
They found a temporary home at the Westside Cultural Arts Center, then became part of the Serenbe community’s Institute for Art, Culture & the Environment in Chattahoochee Hills.
Preparing one year for an outdoor Serenbe concert — in a grassy meadow, on a stage the Terminators helped build — revealed Clark’s adventurous side. Their production gear was vandalized one night, so he and another dancer camped out for several nights to keep watch. No surprise then, that he encourages his fellow dancers to go camping, fishing and snorkeling together. They are a family in and out of the studio.
When the Serenbe partnership ended, and the COVID pandemic took hold, they struggled to get reestablished. Finally in 2022 they were able to create a permanent home for the ensemble and its fledging school at the Tula Arts Center in Buckhead, where they also designed an intimate white box theater.
Clark and his co-dancers still perform from time to time at the KSU Dance Theater in Marietta and unconventional spaces such as the Atlanta Botanical Garden. In December, he will reprise his role as Bob Cratchit in “Marley Was Dead To Begin With: A Christmas Carol Reimagined,” an offbeat take on the holiday classic. It will be his and the company’s first time dancing on the Alliance Theatre’s Hertz stage.
Van Buskirk said Clark could easily have amplified his career by becoming a principal dancer with another large ballet company. But he chose to stay in Atlanta, close to his family, which has called the area home for more than six generations.
As a child, he lived in his great grandmother’s house on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Decatur and took MARTA to his classes at the Atlanta Ballet School. At 20, he moved to his own apartment, but the family continued to live in the house until it was sold in the early 2000s. Clark says he would love to “hit the jackpot” and buy the house, bringing it back into the family.
For now, he and his wife, Naomi, live in Marietta with their 14-year-old son Adrian, a dedicated soccer player. “We go to a lot of Atlanta United games together, and I am managing his soccer team this year,” Clark said. “It’s pretty intense.”
That could well describe Terminus’ first decade. Clark said in the early years they wondered if they would ever feel like a real ensemble. “Now we finally do,” he said. “I’m so grateful we are here 10 years later.”
DANCE PREVIEW
Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre: “Out of the Box IV”
Saturday and Sunday as well as Sept. 26-27. $65 (senior, student, military discounts available). White Box Theatre, Tula Arts Center, 75 Bennett St. NW, Atlanta. 404-446-0510, terminusmbt.com.