Though the pieces the company is performing for their Berkeley engagement are completely different than our Boston program, I feel that a glimpse inside Mark Morris' world is always worth the effort and usually illuminating in general. Morris recently had a chat with San Francisco Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman.
You'll want to read it all, but here is a sample:
Q: Now that you've almost completely retired from dancing, you have this body of work that is being danced by other people. Does that change your relationship to the pieces?
A: My company just keeps getting better - I don't think I could have done "Socrates" in the past because it's so difficult. The dancers in my company are doing roles that I used to dance, and some of them, for me, were almost impossible conceptually.
One of the most complicated pieces I ever made was to a little Mozart piano rondo. I recently taught it to some women in my company, and they learned it in half an hour. So as long as I stay out of the way, everything works.
Read the complete article.
The Mark Morris Dance Group opens the Celebrity Series of Boston season on October 14 at the Cutler Majestic Theatre. The engagement includes the world premiere of Petrichor. That's right, I said world premiere.