Lauren Grant--one of the few bright moments in an otherwise dull evening.
Mark Morris Dance Group
University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center
February 2, 2010
When it comes to dance, I’m strictly in the don't-know-if-it’s-art-only-know-what-I-like camp. If the February 2 performance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is any indication, I’m firmly in the “don’t like” camp for the famed Mark Morris Dance Group. The show split the large audience as well; about two thirds jumped to their feet at the end, while the remainder joined me in stony silence.
Maybe I just didn’t get it, but the opening piece “Looky” seemed pointless and of interest only for its Cirque du Soleil-like costumes. Alas, Cirque performers yawn with more energy than was on stage. A series of folding chairs were the only props and dancers mostly just sat on them while one or more of their number engaged in either seemingly random movement or pantomime. The miming evoked Old West saloon activity, but for no apparent reason. Nor was there any logic to why a ripped black man pranced around the stage, or why he did not appear thereafter. Atonal piano accompanied this perplexing piece.
The second piece, “All Fours,” used Bela Bartok’s “String Quartet No. 4” literally to ground the piece. Its major theme was of two lines of dancers clad in contrasting costumes crab walking toward each other. As the lines met, those in one line rose to their feet and danced off stage while the other line continued its crawl. Morris is famed for his use of music. He choreographed the above mentioned movement (and several others) to reoccur much as a dominant melody line of a composition would do. Clever enough, except that the piece went on way too long. (We got it already!)
After the intermission—and had I not been with a group I would have certainly left at the interval—unfolded to a Schuman composition. Unfolded is the right word because half of the troupe was wearing one of the more insipid and unfortunate costumes I’ve ever seen: tight electric blue shorts topped with a midriff-bearing cross between a halter, a cape, and a tunic. It was silly enough on the women; it made the men look like cross-dressing Smurfs. The choreography was akin to Martha Graham modern dance pieces from the early 20th century; that is, a mix of classic ballet and expressive freeform in which dancers leapt to the center and scurried off at the wings. It was the sort of thing that was seen as innovative in Graham’s time, but feels like a museum piece today.
I quite enjoyed the dancing of the diminutive Lauren Grant and the lithe, tall Michelle Yard, but that’s about it. None of the male dancers stood out—most were athletic, but not particularly graceful and several were noticeably out of synch with other dancers. Whether this was by design or accident, I cannot say. What I can report is that I would have been more enthralled working with Census data at the UMass library than attending this performance.
University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center
February 2, 2010
When it comes to dance, I’m strictly in the don't-know-if-it’s-art-only-know-what-I-like camp. If the February 2 performance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is any indication, I’m firmly in the “don’t like” camp for the famed Mark Morris Dance Group. The show split the large audience as well; about two thirds jumped to their feet at the end, while the remainder joined me in stony silence.
Maybe I just didn’t get it, but the opening piece “Looky” seemed pointless and of interest only for its Cirque du Soleil-like costumes. Alas, Cirque performers yawn with more energy than was on stage. A series of folding chairs were the only props and dancers mostly just sat on them while one or more of their number engaged in either seemingly random movement or pantomime. The miming evoked Old West saloon activity, but for no apparent reason. Nor was there any logic to why a ripped black man pranced around the stage, or why he did not appear thereafter. Atonal piano accompanied this perplexing piece.
The second piece, “All Fours,” used Bela Bartok’s “String Quartet No. 4” literally to ground the piece. Its major theme was of two lines of dancers clad in contrasting costumes crab walking toward each other. As the lines met, those in one line rose to their feet and danced off stage while the other line continued its crawl. Morris is famed for his use of music. He choreographed the above mentioned movement (and several others) to reoccur much as a dominant melody line of a composition would do. Clever enough, except that the piece went on way too long. (We got it already!)
After the intermission—and had I not been with a group I would have certainly left at the interval—unfolded to a Schuman composition. Unfolded is the right word because half of the troupe was wearing one of the more insipid and unfortunate costumes I’ve ever seen: tight electric blue shorts topped with a midriff-bearing cross between a halter, a cape, and a tunic. It was silly enough on the women; it made the men look like cross-dressing Smurfs. The choreography was akin to Martha Graham modern dance pieces from the early 20th century; that is, a mix of classic ballet and expressive freeform in which dancers leapt to the center and scurried off at the wings. It was the sort of thing that was seen as innovative in Graham’s time, but feels like a museum piece today.
I quite enjoyed the dancing of the diminutive Lauren Grant and the lithe, tall Michelle Yard, but that’s about it. None of the male dancers stood out—most were athletic, but not particularly graceful and several were noticeably out of synch with other dancers. Whether this was by design or accident, I cannot say. What I can report is that I would have been more enthralled working with Census data at the UMass library than attending this performance.
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