More Mark Morris
Mark Morris (pictured) has choreographed a dance called Looky to five of my Disklavier studies, and it’s being presented at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston(via)
Like many of Morris’s older dances, such as “Mythologies” (1986) and “Ten Suggestions” (1981), “Looky” is at once an homage to classical and early modern dance forms and a comment on them. Looky is a playful premiere from Mark Morris.
Many of us are not fortunate enough to keep up with Morris’ new works. I was happy to find a clip from Mozart Dances and clips from Dido and Aeneas.
Mozart Dances
Dido Aeneas – Henry Purcell
The argument is even weaker in the case of Dido and Aeneas, which is one of Morris’s most starkly beautiful and touching pieces. In its recent BAM incarnation, Dido’s classically rigorous structure was more visible than ever, because Morris—who used to dance both the role of Dido and the role of the Sorceress—had for the first time given away his two parts, one to a woman and one to a man. There were losses entailed in this changing-of-the-guard, but there were also gains. Without Morris to draw your eye every time he was onstage, you could actually see the precise details and careful symmetry of the other dancers’ steps. And though I missed the presence of Morris himself—and missed, as well, the implications of the traditional double-casting, whereby the victim of the tragic love affair was also the manipulative destroyer of that affair—I understood that this version had a clarity and purity that offered us something new. (Wendy Lesser, the idea of Camp)
Here is an older, original version with Mark Morris dancing.
Dido’s Lament
Mark Morris previous post includes photos of musical masters.