Lindsey Kemp taught Kate Bush and Bowie to dance R.I.P

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Kate Bush has paid tribute to ground-breaking dancer, mime artist and choreographer Lindsay Kemp, who has died aged 80.

She described Kemp - who taught her to dance - as "inspirational" and "a truly original and great artist of the stage".

He also worked closely with David Bowie as he was creating his Ziggy Stardust persona.

Kemp died suddenly in Italy, where he lived, on Saturday morning.

In her tribute, Bush said: "To call him a mime artist is like calling Mozart a pianist. He was very brave, very funny and above all, astonishingly inspirational.

"There was no-one quite like Lindsay. I was incredibly lucky to study with him, work with him and spend time with him.

"I loved him very much and will miss him dearly. Thank you, dear Lindsay."

Long-time collaborator David Haughton said Kemp's death was like "losing a part of yourself".

He told BBC News that Kemp had been working up until his sudden death in Livorno, Italy, and had been "very busy and very positive".

"He suddenly said he felt ill, and a minute and a half later he was gone."

Kemp's spectacular productions combined mime, dance, theatre and cabaret.

He was also known for his film cameos, appearing as a pub landlord in The Wicker Man in 1973 and as a pantomime dame in the film Velvet Goldmine in 1998.

Born in 1938 near Liverpool, Kemp grew up in South Shields and quickly discovered a love of dance.

"I realised that I wanted to dance when I first realised anything at all. I was born dancing," he said.

"For me dancing has always been a shortcut to happiness."

He studied under expressionist dancer Hilde Holger and French mime Marcel Marceau before forming his own dance company in the 1960s.

In 1966, Kemp met David Bowie after a performance in Covent Garden when the singer was 19.

"He came to my dressing room and he was like the archangel Gabriel standing there, I was like Mary," he said.

"It was love at first sight."

Bowie became his student and his lover, performing in Kemp's show, Pierrot in Turquoise and gaining the theatrical inspiration for Ziggy Stardust.

"He was certainly multi-faceted, a chameleon, splendid, inspiring, a genius of a creature. But I did show him how to do it," Kemp said.

After teaching Bush to dance, Kemp described her as a shy performer who nevertheless was "dynamic" when she began to move.

The singer later dedicated the song Moving to him, pushing a copy under the door of his London flat.

Kemp said: "It was a very moving experience, because I didn't know she was a singer."

Celebrities paid their respects on Twitter, with comedian Julian Clary writing: "Rest in Peace Lindsay."

Doctor Who actor Barnaby Edwards described Kemp as an "absolute delight".

"The world will be less fun and less naughty without him," he added.

The actor and Bowie expert Nicholas Pegg shared a photo of himself on stage with the singer Marc Almond and Kemp, whom he called "one of life's originals".

Director Nendie Pinto-Duschinsky, who was making a documentary about Kemp, said he had been rehearsing with students, preparing for a tour and writing his memoirs before his death.

"We always forgot that Lindsay was 80 - it doesn't seem like that when someone is so charismatic, so full of life and such a force of nature really," she said.