Mark Morris Dance Group

Mark Morris is one of my favourite contemporary choreographers primarily because he is exceedingly musical. I always feel like you can see the music in his dances. This year his group is touring and performing 'L'allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato' as a celebration of 30 years in the biz (not an easy thing to accomplish). This piece was created in the early 80's when Morris was the director of a theatre in Belgium.  The music is a Handel piece for chorus and solo singers, the libretto is to poems by John Milton and the scenery is based on the paintings of William Blake (although in a very abstract way).

This work was considered a masterpiece almost immediately after it was first performed, and after experiencing it, I can see why. The music is composed of 32 sections and split into 2 parts with an intermission. The scenery is composed of scrims of various colours and at various depths on the stage, each dropping or lifting away to create different colour moods. There are also a few panels composed of vertical lines or squares that interact with the scrims. The costumes in the first part are muted, earthy colours. In the second part, the costumes are vibrant, lively colours. The various sections go back and forth in mood between 'l'allegro' (joy) and 'il penseroso' (melancholy) and the occasional attempt at 'moderato' (balance between the two). The movements vary from simple (walking, running) to sublime (one section had a series of turns and swooping motions that brought tears to my eyes). Unlike much of contemporary dance, there is a great deal of humour (the fox hunting scene and the men's slap/hug dance, for instance) alongside the serious.

The singers and chorus were fantastic, the intertwining of the music and dance so complete that there were moments when I forgot that the singing was not coming out of the dancers' mouths. As with other Morris pieces that I've seen, there are moments when the structure of the music is so clearly reflected in the choreography that it feels they must have been created together (when in fact they are separated by hundreds of years).

My dance friends and I were all in agreement that we felt the urgent need to jump up on stage with the dancers and join them. I wanted to see the whole thing again, as soon as it ended. I wanted to be part of it.