Mark Morris, artistic director and founder, has made a name for himself as one of the leaders in contemporary dance. Morris' signature style of coupling live music with what some call "participational dance" a form inspired by folk dancing that emphasizes the dancers themselves rather than the presence of the audience, as performance dance does has wowed countless audiences across the world.
"In participational, you're really seeing the joy that the dancers have from dancing with each other," said Margaret Lawrence, director of programming at the Hopkins Center. "Sometimes it's really obvious, where all the dancers form a big ring and it's not even about [the audience] anymore, they're just having this dance."
Morris has always been musical, naturally leading him to accompany his dance pieces with live sounds. The group has featured live music in its performances since 1996, 16 years after Morris founded the original dance group. An ensemble tours with the dancers to show crowds worldwide the impact live music rather than recordings can have on audiences.
"The truth is I love and adore music, and that's why I choreograph to music," Morris said in a post-performance question-and-answer session. "To hear this music performed by human beings and danced likewise, that's something you don't get."
Combining dance with live music not only gives the audience essentially two performances in one, but makes each component more breathtaking.
"Sometimes watching a Mark Morris dance is like seeing the music come to life," Lawrence said. "You see every note, every beat. It's almost literal in a great way, and that can really be fun even if you're a musician or not."
Each of the four pieces performed showcased the incredible talents of both the dancers and the musicians. Light-hearted and more serious dances created a well-balanced performance that left the crowd in awe.
"I loved that Morris incorporated elements from historical English dances and combined them with modern choreography," Jacqui Calloway '14 said. "The formations and partnerwork were also amazing. I liked the range of the performance; some pieces were hilarious, while others were absolutely beautiful."
The performance began with a piece entitled "The Argument" (1999), set to Robert Schumann's "Funf Stcke im Volkston." This score features five sections, each of which features an accompanying dance. As one of the more dramatic pieces, the dances conveyed an immediacy and anger through sharp movements, while softer motions represented a calmness between the disagreement.
Next was "A Wooden Tree" (2012), the only series of dances performed to recorded music. The short, eclectic songs of Ivor Cutler inspired a lighthearted quirkiness in the dances, and some utterly silly moments. This playful shift left Tuesday night's audience laughing, making it the clear crowd favorite.
The third section was "Silhouettes" (1999), set to Richard Cumming's five-piece piano number of the same name. This was the first dance to feature only two dancers for the entirety, while the first two featured groups of six and eight. "Silhouettes" nicely balanced the first dances with its quick and powerful movements that were both intense and playful.
The final performance was "Festival Dance" (2011), accompanied by Johann Nepomuk Hummel's "Piano Trio No. 5 in E Major, Op. 83." Arguably the group's most well-known piece, "Festival Dance" brought all 12 dancers onstage for folk dance-inspired choreography.
Regardless of whether one's experiences with dance and music have been limited to the occasional shower sing-a-long or include a lifetime of exposure, Mark Morris Dance Group puts on a performance that will not be intimidating and would please all audiences.
"[Morris'] dances aren't trying to impress you with how much they know, and they're not trying to be so cerebral that you have no idea what's going on," Lawrence said. "It's very approachable. This is just really joyous dancing, it's not afraid to be silly sometimes and there's amazing live music."
The Mark Morris Dance Group will perform in the Moore Theater at the Hopkins Center at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday night's performance will feature a pre-show discussion led by music professor Spencer Topel.
