Hotly anticipated the Mark Morris Dance Group has not been seen in Sydney since 2003.
Mark Morris has more than thirty years and 150 works– including commissions from the world’s top ballet companies – to his credit His 20-strong ensemble of dancers were last in Australia for the Perth International Arts Festival .
In this programme we saw four short works that exemplifies the company’s distinct style and reminds us why Morris is regarded as one of the finest contemporary choreographers.
The works do not have sets as such, apart from a couple of chairs. They do feature tremendous atmospheric lighting. What is also important is Morris’s insistence on the use of live music,– a wonderful trio playing from the orchestra pit.
Opening the programme was ‘Pacific’ originally premiered by the San Francisco Ballet in 1995. This showcased several aspects of Morris’ distinctive style- including the Graham and folk dance influences.
The dancers have incredible ballon for their soft, fluid jumps. In ‘Pacific’ there is plenty of stylized posing with angular arms contrasted at times with the use of soft, seemingly boneless arms.
The men are bare chested and in long skirts and the women in elegantly flowing, long sleeveless dresses. The colours are red, blue and green on white with the costumes dyed to make the dancers look like flowers. The long skirts emphasise the flowing, at times bell like movements. There are plenty of turns and fluid petit batterie featured in the ensemble work. There are some beautiful mini solos and unusual lifts and partnering in the pas de deux. It is all very stylized and formal yet simultaneously flowing and free.
Although danced terrifically , ‘Wooden Tree’ , to Ivor Cutler’s songs, written ín the good Olde English style, was a little disappointing. The piece was quirky and funky. Many in the audience found the piece humorous though this wasn’t the case for me. The choreography was again quite formal and stylised with references to folk dances, square dancing and ballroom styles with lots of complicated, interweaving lines.
The short sharp songs, using recorded music, questioned life, love and relationships. “Little Black Buzzer” is about a near-frozen telegraph operator sending signals from the top of the world while a circle of women stagger-steps around him in stuttering dot- dashes of movement. The repetitive chorus of the song is ‘written’ in Morse code.
Moody and evocative, ‘Whelm’, set in a barren wasteland with frozen footsteps in the snow, was enigmatic, shadowy and mysterious. Other colleagues of mine cited Rauschenberg and Cunningham influences to
All the performers were in black costumes– although at first with the lighting at the opening, it looked as if the men were topless in white trousers. Who was the mysterious veiled lady? Who was she grieving for? Was she a sister of Cocteau’s figure of Death? Who was the menacing hoodie figure?!
Choreographically, it was as if the dancers were skating at times, at other times they were fancy, high stepping, show ponies. Much use was made of ‘fall and recover’. There were unusual backbends and lifts and a marvellous sculptural pas de deux. Slinky floorwork was contrasted with machine like, almost robotic sections in this bleak, dark, nightmarish fantasy.
The final piece, “Festival Dance’, opened with a light, enchanting pas de deux. Hummel’s Trio was delicately yet exuberantly played. The costumes were in assorted shades of grey/black/white with red details and red underskirts for the women.
Overall this work was charming and pleasant, with a delicate, rather wistful ending to the second movement. In the third movement I was reminded of Nijinksa’s ‘Les Nocces’ and other Ballets Russes influences (for example, the crossed over arms run). There were blocks of flowing, pulsating movement that rippled. The Festival Dance concluded with a gentle spotlit embrace.
The evening was a wonderful celebration of this great company and its superb dancers.
Running time 2 hours 15 minutes (approx) including one interval.
THE MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP played played the Joan Sutherland Auditorium at the Sydney Opera House between the 3rd and 6th June.