| Mark Morris | |
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 Morris in 2006 |
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| Born | 29 August 1956
Seattle, Washington, USA |
| Occupation | Artistic director, dancer, choreographer, conductor, opera director |
Mark Morris (born 29 August 1956) is an American dancer, choreographer and director whose work is acclaimed for its craftsmanship, ingenuity, humor, and at times eclectic musical accompaniments. Morris is popular among dance aficionados as well as mainstream audiences.
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Morris grew up in Seattle, Washington, in a family that appreciated music and dance and nurtured his budding talents; his father taught him how to read music and his mother Maxine introduced him to Balkan folk dance, and ballet. In the early years of his career, he performed with Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean, Eliot Feld, and the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble.
Morris moved to New York, where he established his own company, the Mark Morris Dance Group, which debuted in 1980. From 1988 to 1991, it was the resident company at the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels.
In 1990, Morris and Mikhail Baryshnikov established the White Oak Dance Project, a group formed to choreograph and perform new dance.
Since 1994, Morris has created seven works on the San Francisco Ballet. He also received commissions from such companies as American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, and the Paris Opera Ballet. He has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, English National Opera, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He directed and choreographed King Arthur for English National Opera in June, 2006, and in May 2007 he directed and choreographed Orfeo ed Euridice for the Metropolitan Opera. He is the recipient of eight honorary doctorates.
Notable works of Morris include Gloria (1981), set to Vivaldi, Championship Wrestling (1985), based on an essay by Roland Barthes, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1988), Dido and Æneas (1989), The Hard Nut (1991), his version of The Nutcracker set in the 1960s, The Office (1995), Greek to Me (2000), a dance version of the Virgil Thomson–Gertrude Stein opera Four Saints in Three Acts (2001), the ballet A Garden (2001), and the modern dance pieces Grand Duo (1993), V (2002) and All Fours (2004).
Morris and his Dance Group also collaborated with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Falling Down Stairs, a film by Barbara Willis Sweete available on Ma's Inspired by Bach series, volume 2. In casu, Morris choreographed a dance based on Bach's Third Suite for Unaccompanied Cello, which Ma performs. Sweete's film depicts the performance as well as its evolution. Morris has also created with visual artists such as Isaac Mizrahi and Howard Hodgkin.
In 2001 his company moved into permanent studios, the Mark Morris Dance Center, in Brooklyn, located at 3 Lafayette Avenue in the Fort Greene neighborhood. 2001 also marked the establishment of The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center, offering classes to dancers of all ages and skill levels, as well as people with Parkinson's Disease.
Morris is the subject of a biography, Mark Morris (1993), by dance critic Joan Acocella. In 2001, Morris published L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato: A Celebration, a volume of photographs and critical essays.
Though now largely retired from performing, Mark Morris was long noted for the musicality and power of his dancing as well as his amazing delicacy of movement. His body was heavier than the typical dancer, more like that of an average person, yet his technical and expressive abilities outstripped those of most of his contemporaries.
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   | Mark Morris Dance Group website - Mark Morris Dance Group |
| | The Metropolitan Opera: Features: Orfeo ed Euridice - Mark Morris "Throws an Opera" The director and choreographer of a new production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice explains how he does it. |
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