Mark Morris Dance Group
Reviews

Mark Morris Dance Group

If Mark Morris were a musician, and his Dance Group an instrument, then one could say that he plays it in a masterly fashion. The show consists of a few separate parts where each one is defined by its own particular and very different style of music.

It starts with Italian concerto by Bach, with its slow, pensive mood dictating the almost classical movements of the dancers. By contrast the next part takes us as far from the classics as it could be, to the Wild West, where the cowboys and their gals enjoy all the pleasures of sex, fresh air and country music. The third part is a solo performed by a leading dancer of the company, Bradon McDonald. His simple black attire is in a sticking contrast to his white gloves, and our attention is involuntarily attracted to them. The body is secondary; we follow the magic movements of the hands to wherever they are going to take us. But then there comes the last and, as usual, the best part, the Grand Duo, where a biblical theme is seamlessly transferred into an ancient Greece atmosphere. The dim lighting and the rich colours of the costumes bring associations with the oil paintings of the great masters of the Renaissance. It starts with the light focusing on the hands of a large group of dancers; they reach out for something above them. The hands, the bodies try to tell us something. This time the solo on the piano is accompanied by a violin; we hear some sorrowful Jewish intonations. But then somehow, and we didn’t even notice when everything changes: the costumes, the rhythm - we are in ancient Greece now, in the times of Spartacus, probably…And then there comes the grand finale, where we forget about themes and meanings: there is nothing but wild unruly rhythm and the bodies, having no will of their own just move in time with it. The final key is stricken; the invisible maestro left; and it’s time for us, the audience, to pay our tribute; and we do; with a storm of wild, unruly applause!