Dancers Overcoming Gravity
BERKELEY—The amazing Mark Morris dancers, 17 strong, are learning to veto the law of gravity as they glide almost weightlessly through a night of Mozart.
Mark Morris, that master hybrid of ballet/modern dance and its middle ground, showed off his timeless evening-long “Mozart Dances” with sublime poetry and musical sensitivity. Is there any choreographer alive comparable?
His light-footed ensemble of 17 dancers seemed to levitate and float through the air. Meantime his dance moves—sometimes modern ballet, sometimes innovative modern dance—explore a rich middle ground. And his acumen in selecting airy movements just right for any musical phrase by Mozart reflects deep musical understanding and sensitivity. And even when no feet or steps are involved, just supine bodies merely thrusting a gesticulating hand upward, he can insert gentle humor too.
This is certainly no pretty-boy company. It features performers other companies would abruptly turn away: Women too tall or too short, and men who are balding. And the bland costumes sometimes look more like underwear and nightshirts. But can this barefoot crew ever dance and levitate the entire audience in the process, night after night!
The three-part evening-length “Mozart Dances,” viewed at Zellerbach Hall Sept. 21, starts with women only in the Piano Concerto 11, and hands held back at the nape of the neck in a signature pose. Skittering through the groupings is a sylph-like soloist (Lauren Grant) providing welcome contrasts.
In the “Double” (the two-piano D Major Sonata)) section, the men take over, often with arms more than legs in the limelight, moving like deer, often in quirky moves that the puckish choreographer loves, and an opening solo by the will-o-the-wisp Aaron Loux. This involves as well an all-male pas de deux rarity, a (non-sexual) combo I don’t think I’ve seen since Baryshnikov’s heyday.
You wondered how long the performers could continue barefoot. Nonetheless they all came back for the more festive Piano Concerto No. 27 finale number wearing those whites, suggesting maybe that the costumes were missent from New York and still stuck somewhere in the High Sierra. Morris brings it all off, even when swaying bodies are passed off as being dance art. I’m not convinced, but I can be swayed.
New York conductor Colin Fowler was masterful at coordinating the tasteful pit ensemble with the dancers on stage while Inon Bannatan served as pianist throughout. Fowler did double-duty, taking on the second piano in the D Major Sonata.
The residency marked the opening event of Jeremy Geffen’s tenure as artistic director of Cal Performances on campus at UCB, succeeding the veteran idea man Matias Tarnopolsky. Geffen transferred here from Carnegie Hall, New York. The company and presenters also commemorated the late Bay Area critic Allan Ulrich who died over the summer.
Mark Morris’ “Mozart Dances” of 2006, reprise by the Mark Morris Dance Group, Sept. 20-22. With Berkeley Symphony playing in the pit. Auspices of Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley. For Cal Perf. Events, info: (510) 642-9988, or go online.
