"...magnificent dance...that only Mark Morris can deliver"

Aug. 22, 2006 performance, reviewed by Connell McGrath

Mark Morris once again brought his complex, clever and mysterious dances to Jacob's Pillow this week. He has become a regular at the Pillow festival, returning year after year, which poses a challenge for his most devoted fans (such as me). This is the first year that he has not repeated himself in the works he presents to us. He's chosen to show a body of work mostly from the 80s that are smaller, shorter dances. On opening night, there were three solo dances, one dance for three dancers and a larger, full-scale work. Some of these dances have not been seen by the public much at all - and there's a reason for that. Tuesday evening's performance was uneven, with some very excellent work and some work that would be better left in the archives. Even so, Mark Morris dance is like pizza - it's still pretty good even when it's bad.

The first dance on the program was "Songs That Tell a Story" from 1982. This dance fits into what has become a category for Mark Morris. He takes an odd, culturally specific soundtrack - in this case an Old Time radio show from 1956 - and sets a complex, often mocking dance to it. The soundtrack is complete with crackles and pops, Southern style announcers, and Old Time songs about Jesus, love and loss. Songs was performed with excellence by Craig Biesecker, Rita Donahue and Michelle Yard. Costumes for the piece were rolled up jeans, bare feet and denim work shirts. The dance steps were simple, yet in combination became complex patterns. He used a signature technique of having the dancers repeat the motions in follow-the-leader fashion instead of sync. He would vary the time intervals between when each dancer starts a series of motions, which gave the dance a complex, intriguing pattern. For much of this dance, he used gestures that imitated the story of the songs, and he seems to mock both story-telling styles of dance and the song content by doing so. Mocking Christianity in 1982 was a very different proposition than mocking Christianity in 2006. Art that mocks religion seems almost dangerous in today's world of fundamentalist predominance, calling into question freedom of expression issues.

The next three pieces were solo works, more curios from the vault rather than master works. First was "Peccadillos" from 2000 for a solo dancer - this evening dance by Joe Bowie - to music by Erik Satie. The music was played live by Steven Beck on a toy piano that gave a tinkling, twangy sound. This was originally choreographed for Mikhail Baryshnikov during their White Oak Dance Project collaboration. Bowie did an excellent job with it though piece is limited and trivial. It seems more like a study or sketch than a fully realized work.

The third piece was "Three Russian Preludes" to music by Shostakovich. This is another piece choreographed in 1995 for Baryshnikov, danced on opening night by David Leventhal. This, too, was an odd, study-like piece, with Morris's usual high standard of choreography, but again lacking in depth or brilliance. It may have been better on Baryshnikov, though Leventhal did well with it.

The last small work was "Dad's Charts" to cool, jazzy organ music by Charles Thompson and Illinois Jacquet. Danced by Maile Okamura in a cool tan summer suit and hat, she glides around the stage doing hip-swaying, jazzy steps to the score. Fun to watch, little niche work, certainly worth 10 minutes of the audience's time.

After intermission came one of Morris's great works, "Gloria," to the choral work of the same name by Vivaldi. This is magnificent dance of the kind that only Mark Morris can deliver, and it was beautifully danced by the whole company. What Morris achieves here - with seemingly no effort - is entertaining, amusing dance that's also deep in meaning (supply your own here), sophisticated and brilliant. He relies mostly on ballet and folk dancing styles for Gloria, and as always gives the lie to the idea that ballet is fusty or "over". He makes full use of the stage - deploying dancers at all points - in various actions and doing interrelated actions that often challenge each other. Morris made "Gloria" in 1981 and revised it in '84. It is as current and as fresh as it was then. If anything, the world is still catching up to it. As Ella Baff, Executive Director of the Pillow, said in her opening remarks, it's one of the great dance works of the 20th century. I agree.

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