mark morris dance group
shubert theater
march 13, 2004

in general i don't like mark morris's work. i respect his ability to create work with so much variation and his understanding of music. however, he seems to have resigned himself to being an interpreter of music, which, to me, is not the same as doing original choreography. take all fours, for example. the music, bartok's string quartet no. 4, is so strong and the dancing is choreophraphed so literally to the music, that you can't see dance in it--you see music. what i remember is the music. what i am in awe of is the music. this is of course is better than when you go to a dance performance and don't remember really anything, which happens more than not i think. i would have liked to seen the piece to no music, then maybe i could have seen the dance. i want to be left with images. and mark morris's work does have those moments--marjorie folkman being stopped in mid air in a spell--but these images seem less important. in his work, music comes first and dance seems essentially a collaborative art form. i want to see that dance is more powerful than music, or at least its equal.
contrary to people's opinions around me, i really like serenade. in this solo, morris gets back to the root of male dancing. very folk inspired, he comes across as a strong man, dancing for himself because he enjoys moving. his movement is beautiful because he feels what he is doing and his feeling is expressed to us. it is not trying to be anything it is not, but still remains a performance....and a samarai-esque costume by isaac mizrahi never hurts.