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ONE-TWO PUNCH

ONE-TWO PUNCH
Ken Friedman

Mark Morris might choreograph dances to
existing music, but that doesn’t mean he has dozens of ballet
scores in his head.



"I usually shy away from music that was written for dance,"
Morris tells GO Brooklyn in an interview in his Fort Greene office,
a stone’s throw from the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman
Opera House, where his troupe will perform June 8 and June 10-12
at 7:30 pm.



"For me, [ballet music] is often too programmatic, and it
tells me too much about what should happen onstage," he
says. "I prefer that it be me who is deciding what should
happen instead of the music doing that for me."



On the bill are two local premieres – the first New York-area
performance of "All Fours," set to the music of Bela
Bartok, and the world premiere of "Violet Cavern,"
set to the music of the jazz trio The Bad Plus.



Creating a dance to Bartok’s Fourth String Quartet, a scintillating
piece of music but not one that most listeners would associate
with choreography, seemed a no-brainer to Morris.



"That’s a piece of music I’ve known for 30 years,"
he says, explaining, "every dance I do is specifically because
of a piece of music. I love music, I listen to and study it all
the time – and if I decide that I can bear to listen to it hundreds
of times, then I make up a dance to it!"



Transforming Bartok’s "scary modern music," as Morris
jokingly refers to it, into something danceable was a definite
challenge.



"Bartok based his quartet on his ongoing research into Hungarian
folk music, even though it sounds scary to most people,"
Morris says. "The dance turns it into friendlier music –
it’s difficult both to play and to dance to – and watching the
dance helps many people grasp the music.



"’Oh, of course!’ they say when they’re watching [the dance],
whereas they might be only listening to [the music] and say,
’Oh my God! That’s scary modern music!’ And, although it doesn’t
look like it onstage, there’s an element of folk music, too,
in some of the movements."



Morris is such a fan of Bartok that he’d even consider scuttling
his usual edict of not choreographing ballets to get the chance
to work on Bartok’s balletic masterpiece, "The Wooden Prince."



"’The Wooden Prince’ is just a thriller," he exclaims.
"I’d love to do it some day, even though it needs 100 musicians
in the orchestra, which doesn’t help."



As for "Violet Cavern," this world-premiere dance is
based on music by Ethan Iverson of the improvisational jazz trio
The Bad Plus. Iverson was music director of the Mark Morris Dance
Group until 2002, so he and Morris have a good working relationship,
although, as Morris himself jokes, "It’s still a total mystery
how we came up with this piece. The composer sent me the music
from Japan, where he was recently. ’Violet Cavern’ was specifically
done for my troupe, but there is a certain amount of improvisation
involved in the piece because they’re a rhythm trio."



Compared with the running time of "All Fours" (the
Bartok quartet is about 30 minutes in length), Iverson’s composition
is positively epic.



"The piece is about 50 minutes, and it’s in seven movements,"
Morris says, "and there are lots of variations on themes,
so to work through all of the permutations of the music, we need
all of those minutes.



"It is kind of long for a modern dance piece, but why not?"
he says, shrugging.



"There’s a certain amount of mind-reading among the two
of us," Morris continues, referring to his and Iverson’s
long-time collaboration. "I don’t know how it works, but
it works. We can finish each other’s sentences artistically,
so it’s always fun to work together."



Formed in 1980, the Mark Morris Dance Group has its roots in
Brooklyn, even though they’ve only called Fort Greene home since
the fall of 2001. And Morris’ company has been an integral presence
at BAM for many years, including his celebrated production "The
Hard Nut," which has become an occasional Christmas staple.
This appearance is the group’s 20th at BAM.

 

The Mark Morris Dance Group will perform
"All Fours" and "Violet Cavern" at the BAM
Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place
in Fort Greene on June 8 and June 10-12 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are
$20, $40 and $60. For more information, call (718) 636-4100 or
visit www.bam.org.