Bio
Mark Morris
When Mark Morris (born in 1956) was still in his twenties, he leapt into world fame. A loudmouth of exceptional verbal wit, he soon became popular as a highly quotable personality, a dancer of extraordinary power, an intricate craftsman and an unpredictably imaginative theater artist.
By the end of the 1980s, it was standard practice to speak of Morris as one of the great living choreographers of American modern dance; and to recognize a number of his works as classics. His "Gloria" (1981), "New Love Song Waltzes" (1982), "One Charming Night" (1985), "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato" (1988), and "Dido and Aeneas" (1989) are works that abound in pure dance and in meanings at the same time.
His company, the Mark Morris Dance Group purchased a site in Brooklyn, New York, in 1998 that in subsequent years has become the company's home. "The Hard Nut" (1990) -- his 1960s American love-story version of "The Nutcracker", has become another staple of the repertory. Such shorter works as "Grand Duo" (1993), "The Office" (1994), and "All Fours" (2004) have taken aspects of his dance theater further.
Though he has indubitably made fewer classics in recent years, he remains startlingly prolific. His premieres in 2008 include "Joyride" for the San Francisco Ballet, a new dance for his own company to Samuel Barber's "Excursions," and his take on "Romeo and Juliet," choreographed to the newly-discovered version of Prokoviev's ballet score. And any Mark Morris premiere is news.
Encyclopædia Britannica Articles
- modern dance
Theatrical dance that developed in the U.S. and Europe in the 20th century as a reaction to traditional ballet. Precursors included Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan. Formal teaching of modern dance began with the establishment of the Denishawn schools by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in 1915. Many of their students, principally Doris Humphrey and Martha Graham, further contributed to modern dance's definition as a technique based on principles of fall and recovery (Humphrey) and of contraction and release (Graham). Movement often stressed the expression of emotional intensity and contemporary subjects rather than focusing on the formal, classical, and often narrative aspects of ballet. Later developments included a revolt in the 1950s against Graham's expressionism, led by Merce Cunningham, whose choreography included ballet technique and the element of chance. See also Agnes de Mille; Hanya Holm; José Limón; Alwin Nikolais; Anna Sokolow; Paul Taylor; Twyla Tharp.
- modern dance on britannica.com
- Morris, Mark
(born Aug. 29, 1956, Seattle, Wash., U.S.) U.S. dancer and choreographer. He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980. It was the resident company at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels (1988–91), returned to the U.S. in 1991, and made its permanent home in Brooklyn in 2001. Known for his daring style, he has choreographed many works for his own company as well as for opera productions and television performances, including The Hard Nut (1991), his modernized version of The Nutcracker.
- Morris, Mark on britannica.com
© 2010 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
