Mark Morris, Choreographer and Director, Spices up Sgt Pepper
We talk to Mark Morris about Pepperland, his exuberant celebration of The Beatles ground-breaking album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, touring the UK and Ireland for six weeks in March and April.
Mark Morris Dance Group / Silkroad Ensemble – Layla and Majnun – London
★★★✰✰ Mark Morris’s Layla and Majnun is a music concert with dancing, lamenting a love that cannot be. It’s an age-old story, spread across continents and centuries.
Gallery – Mark Morris Dance Group / Silkroad Ensemble: Layla and Majnun
Photographed by Foteini Christofilopoulou…
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas – The Six Brandenburg Concertos – New York
★★★★✰ At moments, I was ecstatically aware of the beauty of the body in motion.
Big Dance Theater – 17c – London
★★★✰✰ Big Dance Theater company, based in New York, set about turning Samuel Pepys priapic confessions into a dance theatre piece, mashing up past and present….
Mark Morris Dance Group – Pepperland – San Francisco
★★✰✰✰ Cal Performances patrons were clearly entertained on Friday evening. I, too, wanted to like the piece, but it didn’t really resonate with me.
Mark Morris Dance Group – Love Song Waltzes, I Don’t Want to Love, The Trout – New York
★★★✰✰ How striking Morris’ dancers are, how diversified in form and unique in expression and cohesive as a troupe — ever present and responsive to each other.
Mark Morris Dance Group – Lou 100: Pacific, Numerator, Serenade, Grand Duo – New York
★★★★✰ It’s one of the most striking characteristics of the Mark Morris Dance Group. A common sense of focus, an alertness to the music and to each other.
Paul Taylor American Modern Dance – David H. Koch season – New York
★★★★✰ Even in stillness, Taylor dancers hold immense power in their bodies, the energy potential within them more nuclear than solar.
Memorable Performances of 2017 – New York
Six Performances That Stayed with Me in 2017 – Marina Harss with her personal selection of New York dance memories this last year.
Mark Morris Dance Group – The Hard Nut – San Francisco
★★★★★ The house was abuzz on Friday evening for the opening performance of Mark Morris Dance Group’s The Hard Nut. It’s been five years since Cal Performances hosted the production, and clearly fans had been anxiously awaiting its reappearance.
Jessica Lang Dance – Stabat mater – New York
Jessica Lang Dance White Light Festival: Stabat mater ★★★★✰ New York, Rose Theater 2 November 2017 www.jessicalangdance.com www.lincolncenter.org/venue/rose-theater Despite the fact that Christians make up about a third of today’s global population, compared…
Jessica Lang – Catching up with the Choreographer and Director
Answer: “Do it!” Question: “What advice would you give to a young dancer who aspires to choreograph?”
Fall for Dance – New works by Michelle Dorrance, Kyle Abraham, Sara Mearns and Honji Wang, Mark Morris – New York
★★★✰✰ I caught all four new works: an expanded version of Michelle Dorrance’s Myelination, Kyle Abraham’s Drive, the Sara Mearns and Honji Want collaboration No. 1, and Mark Morris’s solo Twelve of ‘em for David Hallberg.
San Francisco Ballet and School – Student Showcase, Promotions and Company Joiners
San Francisco exists in its own world, out here on the distant West Coast. The San Francisco Ballet, though, just became more global than ever, with new 2017-18 members joining from around the world. The company school, which presented its annual Student Showcase 31 May through 2 June at YBCA Theater, draws international students as well…
Mark Morris Dance Group – Pepperland (premiere) – Liverpool
★★★✰✰ Morris is not the man to create a Beatles tribute show, choreographing 1960s dance routines to the original songs. Instead, he commissioned an hour-long score from Ethan Iverson…
Vanessa Fenton – Bouncing back and new works presented in Siobhan Davies and Clore Studios
After a few years below the radar Vanessa Fenton has been quietly bouncing back choreographically and this month presented her own double bill at Siobhan Davies Dance Studies and once again contributed a piece to the Royal Ballet’s latest Draft Works bill.
Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance – Book of Beasts, The Word, Esplanade – New York
★★★★✰ What is it about Esplanade that makes us so elated, so satisfied, so moved?
Interview – Robert Barnett, former New York City Ballet dancer and longtime Artistic Director of Atlanta Ballet
Robert Barnett joined New York City Ballet in 1949. In those early years he worked closely with Balanchine and Robbins particularly before going on to direct Atlanta Ballet. Now 91 he is still actively involved in dance and passing on all he knows…
San Francisco Ballet – Seven Sonatas, Optimistic Tragedy (premiere), Pas/Parts 2016 – San Francisco
★★✰✰✰ The trouble with Program 2 is its centerpiece, choreographer-in-residence Yuri Possokhov’s new work ‘Optimistic Tragedy’.
