MARK MORRIS DANCE GRAOUP

Review by Celia Ipiotis

Now celebrating their 45th anniversary, the Mark Morris Dance Group took up residence at the Joyce Theater presenting two different programs and two world premieres. As always, music and dance formed an equal partnership Morris’ season.

Never at a loss for inventiveness, Morris The Argument demonstrates his innate musicality and ability to explore classic music’s folksy, dancey side. In this case, Robert Schumann’s score formed the foundation for three couples who engaged in a variety of emotional dynamics that broke into folk dance steps punctuated by a wink towards the Charleston.

Northwest, Morris’ world premiere, nodded to the Athabascan and Yup ‘ik Native peoples of Alaska. Set to a score by John Luther Adams, it voiced a community’s shared rhythms and rituals with shifting lines of dancers repeating small, grounded steps. Little paper fans extended from everyone’s hands, and as each section ended,  fans slipped out of their hands, like leaves falling in autumn. In each succeeding section, dancers stepped between fans dotting the floor, until they let go of their fans again and so on.

Ultimately, the fans formed a visual residue of the people who were there before. Near the end, the meditative quality was interrupted when one woman began fanning her face as if impatient for it all to be over. Considering the beautiful geometry and quiet of the piece, this  “break” did not track.   However,  an additional visual component emerged with the live musicians: Deanna Cirielli on harp and Colin Fowler on percussion adding mightily to Northwest’s lingering afterimages.

A  member of the company for nearly two decades, Dallas McMurray has thoroughly absorbed the Morris style. In Ten Suggestions he moved with the lightness and speed of a mosquito deciding whether or not to land until he dropped to the ground without the audience spotting the transition. 

Although designated a solo, Mc Murray actually danced a duet with Alexander Tcherepnin’s Bagatelles played on the piano by Colin Fowler. Originally performed by Morris in 1981,  McMurray invested a sense of wit and uncertainty into this dance with a hula hoop, and a chair that elicited wild applause. 

The evening closed on an upbeat dance  Going Away Party choreographed in 1990 to a mix-tape soundtrack  that included Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys performing songs like “Milk Cow Blues” and “When You Leave Amarillo, Turn Out The Lights”.

Equally witty, nostalgic and naughty, the dancers were swinging to the free-wheeling songs, and ordering up an aura of community and solitude. 

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis

*Danica Paulos