A Night at Home for Mark Morris

The Brooklyn-based Mark Morris Dance Group won’t be appearing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this spring, as it has typically done in the last decade. Instead, the company is hosting a series of studio concerts in its own building, just across the street from the Howard Gilman Opera House.But though the venue may be a studio outfitted with theatrical lights and bleacher seating, there is nothing small-scale about these evenings. Wednesday’s opening night program boasted four substantial works for casts of five to 12. Eight classical musicians provided live accompaniment. And there was a world premiere, “Italian Concerto,” featuring a lengthy solo for Mr. Morris himself.Set to Bach’s Italian Concerto in F Major (played by the pianist Colin Fowler), the new dance proved to be only a bit more than a trifle, though still immensely likable. From its opening moment, when three dancers punched solid fists into the air, it was clear Mr. Morris was taking a playful approach to Bach’s high-spirited keyboard concerto. Two lively brief duets — for young couples in brightly colored, casual clothes — bookended a central solo for the 50-year-old Mr. Morris.“Italian Concerto” bore a marked resemblance to this summer’s “Mozart Dances,” as Mr. Morris again matched steps and quirky gestures to cascading piano notes. This time, however, the scope was far smaller, and the touch lighter and more proletarian. Alongside the courtly movements were hula-hoop hip circles and dancers bopping like teenagers.All in all, it was an extremely postmodern take on Bach, with Mr. Morris’s bouncy, punchy movements wedged up against the concerto’s elegant musical architecture. The contrast worked best in the fast-paced duets, in which the flurry of movement produced quaint juxtapositions and droll surprises — like a sequence of curious, mimelike hand gestures that elicited giggles.Mr. Morris’s choreography was less effective in his own solo, where a slower tempo and scaledback choreography dissipated the piece’s energy. It didn’t help that Mr. Morris, who seldom appears with the company these days, is no longer in dancing shape. His age was a prominent aspect of the solo, yet he seemed to play it straight, as if he were simply another dancer from the company, even joining in a brief unison finale with his considerably younger dancers.Mr. Morris remains a riveting presence onstage, and he delivered the solo’s arm gestures with unmistakable force. Their effectiveness made one wish he had tailored the piece even more to the expressive small motions that are now his strength (as he did in the recent “From Old Seville”).The other three works on Wednesday’s program reflected Mr. Morris’s inventive, often idiosyncratic use of classical music. In the 1999 classic “The Argument,” set to a Schumann piece for cello and piano, simple walking takes on a dazzling array of inflections. A fellow in a dress shirt (John Heginbotham) runs on, glances around the empty stage, and leaves. A blonde in a cocktail dress (the mesmerizing Julie Worden) strides across the stage in a snit, trailed by a man who crowds her every step her like a sheepdog.Mr. Morris knows that an argument is a born duet, and these snappy characters are a delight. But what makes the dance more than merely clever is its unpredictable use of the music. His choreography accents unexpected musical beats with a dramatic fling of the neck or the tap of a woman’s high-heeled shoe. He punctuates a section by having a man toss his date into the wings. Exhilarating steps in canon accompany a triumphant passage of music. To mirror the surge of a cello phrase, a dancer leans back on a heel, raises an arm high, and carries the offkilter momentum into a turn.“Sang-Froid” (2000), set to Chopin, and “Love Song Waltzes” (1989), choreographed to lieder by Brahms, had the same sparkling inventiveness, if not the economy, as “The Argument.” The two repertory works were welcome additions to an evening exploring Mr. Morris’s musicality. The black-clad dancers of “Sang-Froid” twirl to Chopin piano music, but they also sprint and collide. “Love Song Waltzes” shows Mr. Morris working with two equal groups onstage (a frequent method in his work). Though the rhythms are waltz rhythms, the formations are reminiscent of contra dancing — two distinct lines, with dancers reaching across the divide to form couples.Though it’s easy to get lost in the endless permutations of a dance like “Love Song Waltzes,” one remains grateful for the abundance. Even for a so-called studio evening, Mr. Morris lays a bountiful table.Until January 27 (Mark Morris Dance Center, 3 Lafayette Ave., Ft. Greene, Brooklyn, 212-352-3101).

A Night at Home for Mark Morris

A Night at Home for Mark Morris

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