Mark Morris Dance Group started their season at Sadler’s Wells on Tuesday 18th October. The group presented two different programmes, and I saw the first one, that comprised several works from different periods of Morris’s creative output.

The first piece was “Somebody’s Coming to See me Tonight”, created in 1995 and featuring the music of Stephen Foster, a 19th century American composer. Morris’s response to Foster’s romantic salon pieces was, as it is customary, eclectic and varied in moods and movement vocabulary. Though the piece would not rank amongst Morris’s greatest works, it is nonetheless an interesting exploration of human relationships and their possibilities in terms of spatial and movement vocabulary. Morris is renown for his eclectic use of gender on stage and for his translation of musical phrasing into neverending combinations of spatial patterns and eclectic enchainments. The result is inspiring and rarely boring. The choreographer has got a command of timing that is unusual in that he keeps the viewer's attention by his constant shift of styles.

“All Fours” (2003), was a perfect example of this eclectic use of movement and mood. The outer sections of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4 were used for groups of dancers dressed in black who performed interesting combinations of movement and had an apparent plotless significance. The middle sections of the Quartet, however, were performed by dancers in white in what seemed like family portraits –mother, father, daughter and son. The more literal characters of the piece related in a darker way and seemed to provide with some key to the whole piece. I personally preferred the choreographic inventiveness assigned to the group of dancers in black, especially in the closing section of the piece when their arm movements echoed the stacatto rhythm of the music in such a simple and yet powerful way that was fascinating to watch.

“The ‘Tamil Film Songs in Stereo’ Pas de Deux” (1983) was one of those typical Morris pieces at his most humorous. A Pas de Deux reminiscent in its idea to Fleming Flindt’s “The Lesson”, it presented a teacher instructing his student on some bizarre steps and movement combinations to the sound of Indian music. Unlike “The Lesson”, Morris’s work is so funny, it had the audience roaring with laughter. Once again, what is fascinating about the work is the perfect synchronisation between music and dance.

The last work was not new to London audiences. “Grand Duo” (1993) closed the programme with panache. The piece showcases Morris’s genius at choreographic invention as much as it makes the most of his wonderful dancers. One of the most striking features of Morris’s dancers is how different they all are and yet, how harmoniously they all look on stage. “Grand Duo” starts in a sombre mood and slowly starts introducing different movement motifs that get developed as the work progresses. Some of its most important leitmotifs are introduced at the opening, yet one has to wait until the last section to see them developed into endless choreographic fugues. Like in a Sibelius symphony the overall effect of the ending is simply breathtaking. When all the choreographic strands come together and start overlapping each other in endless combinations and spatial patterns, the simplicity of the movement phrases gives way to an effect of continuous inventiveness. The final phrases resembling Hip Hop sequences are so powerful that it makes the work stay in one’s memory long after its viewing.

Once again Morris has lived up to his reputation as one of the most important creative forces at present, not only in choreography, but in all artistic fields. I look forward to seeing his company again very soon.

Two we missed earlier:

LEADING THE WORLD A MERRY DANCE

Mark Morris has no time for rose-tinted nostalgia, but audiences will be reminded of his rich past in his group’s anniversary tour. By Ellie Carr for The Sunday Herald

At 49, Mark Morris is getting a bit old to be an enfant terrible. But then, reckons the outspoken choreographer – his trademark messy curls now greying and shorn, belly growing rounder by the day – he never really was. “I never said that myself,” he says. “It was other people who decided I was the enfant terrible.” So yes, he’s “very happy” to embark on his eponymous company’s 25th anniversary tour without the “frightful child” tag.

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Mark Morris
By Debra Craine for The Times

The Mark Morris Dance Group has now moved on to the next stop (Birmingham) on its hefty UK tour, but not without leaving London with some enduring memories. The second Wells programme, elements of which are being performed on the Dance Umbrella tour, was filled with the kind of thoughtful and musically heartfelt dance Morris is famous for.

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Mark Morris Second Programme
By James Flynn for Online Review London

The second of the two programmes put on by Morris and his group at Sadlerís Wells was elating. The taste, reserve and sympathy with the music that Mark Morris demonstrated throughout the evening were moving and impressive. Not a false touch, not a sneer or a leer, nothing done for impact or self-seeking.

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