Anyone who’s worried that Mark Morris’
love affair with Brooklyn is just a passing dalliance doesn’t
know the renowned choreographer very well.
The Mark Morris Dance Group earned their stripes, and proved
their dedication to the borough, when they performed as part
of the Celebrate Brooklyn festival last month. The city had been
crushed by a stifling heat wave for a week, when on Aug. 10,
the date of their scheduled performance at the Prospect Park
band shell, it began to pour rain.
Morris, who prefers his dancers perform to live music, waited
to rehearse with the dancers and musicians for several hours
beginning at 3 pm. The musicians requested permission to leave.
Morris Dance Group general director Barry Alterman requested
they stay.
And at 7:15 pm, miraculously, the rain stopped and Morris got
on stage to rehearse his dancers in the unfamiliar space. All
the while, the choreographer sat nonchalantly with cigarette
in hand, calling out instructions as the curtain time quickly
neared.
The Morris troupe went on to perform, just a bit after 8 pm,
a spectacularly vivacious program of Morris’ "Lucky Charms"
(1994), "Dancing Honeymoon" (1998) and "Grand
Duo" (1993). Morris himself took part in the lighthearted
"Dancing Honeymoon."
The show was a hit with the capacity audience, who came prepared
with towels, every bit as intent on seeing the performance as
the company was prepared to dance.
"I was shocked at how many people came," said Morris,
"because I wouldn’t have left home."
Alterman said the company was impressed by the band shell’s facilities.
"It was such a good scene out there, I couldn’t believe
it," said Alterman. "We’ll be back next year, absolutely."
Morris, 45, has what no other American choreographer has – an
entire facility dedicated to his work. His company celebrated
its 20th anniversary last spring with a three-week run at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music. And now, to top it all, his three-floor,
$7 million building will officially open its doors on Lafayette
Avenue at Ashland Place on Sept. 12.
The Morris Dance Group tours at least six months a year according
to Alterman, and for much of the year, the facilities will be
used by The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center, which offers
classes for both amateur and professional dancers, ages 5 and
older.
The adult classes began Sept. 4, and kids classes start Sept.
17. The ages 5-7 creative dance class sold out first, according
to Nancy Umanoff, the company’s executive director, and so a
class had to be added for that age group as well as for jazz,
ages 8-11.
The adult classes range from advanced ballet and modern to African
dance and yoga. For children and teens, offerings include creative
dance, African dance, ballet and modern dance.
"We’re starting modestly," explained Umanoff. "We’ll
add tap, Pilates, flamenco, salsa and ballroom in the spring."
"We want more of everything," said Morris. "Spanish,
Indian, social dancing of different kinds. We won’t offer stuff
that nobody wants, but we want it to be a flurry."
The school director is Tina Fehlandt, a founding member of the
Morris troupe who retired just last year. Morris is currently
teaching intermediate and advanced modern adult classes.
"The school is being taught by people like Marjorie [Mussman],
who’s a great ballet teacher who I’ve known for 25 years, who
didn’t have a decent studio," said Morris. "So, of
course, she should work here. Other [instructors] used to dance
with my company and are alumni, like Tina, and some of the group
will be teaching. The personnel is going to rotate a lot."
The center also has rehearsal spaces for local companies, who
are invited to rent them at just $10 an hour, one-fifth the going
rate, said Alterman. This rate is subsidized by a special grant
awarded by the state Council on the Arts. Already, Brooklyn’s
Dancewave has taken advantage of the great deal for rehearsals
and auditions, said Umanoff.
GO Brooklyn got a sneak peak inside the building, which includes
two rehearsal studios and a convertible 60-foot by 60-foot space
that will be able to transform "within a year," according
to Alterman, from a large rehearsal space to an informal performance
space.
"People will be able to rent the space for performances.
Currently there are only storefronts and church basements available
in Brooklyn. The Morris Center fulfills a felt need," said
Alterman.
"We had a meeting at the Marriott in October 1998 with local
arts organizations, because I was concerned we would appear as
soldiers with smallpox blankets, as interlopers or creeps. I
asked, ’What do you guys want and need?’ Everyone responded that
this idea was great," he recalled.
A prominent feature of the building is the large terrace off
the dancers’ lounge, which overlooks a leafy triangle at Flatbush
Avenue and Temple Street and offers a view, to the left, of the
beneficent facade of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
"Two years ago, when we were looking for a home, Harvey
Lichtenstein, who at the time was with the Brooklyn Academy of
Music, helped us find the space," said Umanoff. "Harvey
has been very supportive and helpful."
While features of the building have been named for various patrons,
the most surprising was the Philip Morris terrace off the performance
space floor. The terrace, which Morris called "genius,"
is convenient for smokers in the audience as well as for Morris
and the smokers in his troupe.
Morris’ office is painted a bright grass green, with a dramatic
red bathroom with rice paper screens that roll back to reveal
an oversized Jacuzzi-bathtub. The dancers will also have unheard
of amenities, like a physical therapy room with exercise machines
and a "whirlpool for injured body parts," said Alterman.
The dance center, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, has turned
out to be conducive to the choreographer’s creative energies.
The dancers have been rehearsing all summer, said Morris, and,
he says, he has almost finished work on his first piece born
in Brooklyn.
"It’s not about the Battle of Brooklyn or anything,"
Morris said with a laugh. The dance, called "V" is
for 14 dancers, and is 30 minutes long and set to a piano quintet
by Robert Schumann.
As for future plans for a BAM cultural district, Morris said,
"The most important thing is that there’s arts education.
In whatever form, in whatever medium, because there sure isn’t
anything in schools anymore.
"It’s not just to farm new people to dance with my company.
It’s for people to have some sort of experience with music, dancing,
drama and visual arts, so that whether or not they choose to
participate, at least it’s there," said Morris.
As for the school administrators, when asked if they were nervous
about the prospect of running their new, unprecedented facility,
Umanoff was pragmatic.
"We have 20 years of experience," she said. "I
remember when there was an annual budget of $18,000 and two years
later, $40,000. Now our budget is $4 million and we just completed
a $7 million project. We’re doing the right thing. It’s an organic
evolution.
"It’s scary, but it’s really exciting – the same way the
Cyclone is scary. We know we’re not going to go off the tracks."
For more information about classes go to www.mmdg.org
or call (718) 624-8400.
