ground-breaking work marks Jacob Pillow's 70th
August 7, 2002 performance reviewed by Connell McGrath
Exhuberance, irreverance, humor, fun.
The Mark Morris Dance Group is presenting ground-breaking
work, yet entertaining, yet thought provoking. Morris
choreographs to Schumann and takes any hint of the old or
academic out of it; he helps his audience see the
music’s laughter, delight, even goofiness.
For his company’s performances at Jacob’s Pillow 70th anniversary season, Morris is bringing a few special items to the evening:
-- Three of the five pieces are danced by men only (in homage to Ted Shawn, founder of Jacob's Pillow).-- He presents a piece choreographed by Ted Shawn called Mevlevi Dervish, which he had performed at his first appearance at the Pillow twenty years ago (at the Pillow’s 50th anniversary).
The evening began with a rendition of Morris’ 1999 piece The Argument, first performed at the Wang Theatre in Boston. It is set to Schumann’s Funf Stucke im Volkston, performed by Wolfram Koessel, cello, and Ethan Iverson, piano. This is unique in Morris’s repertoire in that it is explicitly a “relationship” piece (i.e., a piece that explores romantic relationships), although more current works by Mr. Morris show aspects of this theme.
Foursome premiered in February, 2002 at
BAM. In it, Mr. Morris draws heavily on his Eastern
European folk dancing roots to create a wonderfully odd,
funny and thoughtful piece. The piece is almost divided
in two parts as it is set to music by Eric Satie
(Gnossiennes #1, #2, #3) and Seven Hungarian Dances by
Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Danced by Morris, his long-time
dancer Guillermo Resto, Shawn Gannon and John
Heginbotham, the mix of dance styles added depth to the
piece. Resto and Morris have developed an off-the-cuff
style in which they add no studied grace to their
movements, but let the movements themselves communicate.
Gannon and Heginbotham are younger and full of grace; the
same movements take on a different character when they
perform them.
As in all Morris pieces, Foursome seems to be a perfect—yet ideosyncratic—expression of the music to which it is set. Male partnering in itself creates an edge or a humorous tension. Many of the movements in Foursome are simple—walking, looking, pointing—counter-pointed by grand, prideful armsweeps and the like. Morris irreverance has full expression here, but his irreverance isn’t arrogant or derogatory; it’s funny, endearing and most of all genuine. It cuts down nothing else in its expression. Heginbotham and Resto danced this piece with particular insight.
Silhouettes (1999) is set to a jazzy piano suite, Silhouettes—Five Pieces for Piano by Richard Cumming (played by Ilan Rechtman), and was danced by Joe Bowie and Matthew Rose. This is a very funny and fascinating dance that has Bowie and Rose—Morris’s two brawniest, most masculine dancers—performing the most graceful and feminine repertoire of balletic movements. The audience enjoyed it thoroughly and gave the two a well-deserved bravo for their work.
Mevlevi Dervish (1929—Ted Shawn, choreographer) is a short piece set to jaunty music that sounded like a film score from the period by Anis Fuleihan. It was danced well by Shawn Gannon. Dervish is a very short piece in which the dancer—in Dervish costume—whirls for about 4 minutes, and executes various arm gestures. It was a nice novelty piece, and an appropriate homage to Ted Shawn’s legacy.
The real highlight of the evening was the final piece, V (2001) set to Schumann’s Quintet in E flat for piano and strings, op. 44, played very well by Wei-Pin Kuo, Andrea Schultz, Jessica Troy, Wolfram Koessel, and Ilan Rechtman. Danced by almost the whole troupe (14 dancers), the piece is technically and artistically brilliant, and has been rightly hailed by critics.
The dancers are divided into two groups by their respective blue and white costumes, which some have related to earth and sky. It is full of exhuberant, grand gesture to match Schumann’s more jubilant passages. Then, during the somber sections, the dancers crawl on all fours across the stage in various patterns, standing at times to signify an evolution. This piece is remarkable for its ranks of dancers creating macro shape and movement by their changing, evolving formations as a group and in sub-groups. It requires perfect timing, coordination among the dancers and highly practiced control.
V has none of the irreverance that Mr. Morris uses with such insight and power, but it is a fine example of his essential style. In it, he lets the music dictate the movement, and the movement bring out aspects of the music that may be missed by merely listening to it. There is also his typical lack of political or emotional agenda. Instead, the movements evoke their own emotions within the audience. The movement creates its own meaning within the context of music.