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Morris dance rings all the
right bells
L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
Mark Morris Dance Group
Birmingham Hippodrome
*****
MARK Morris's dance masterpiece arrived in
Birmingham for the first time carrying before it like a Royal standard
22 years of accolades, superlatives and adulation.
Up to its appearance at the London Coliseum earlier
this month it had been ten years since it had been seen in Britain yet
was still spoken of in bated breath and it is a magnificent piece of
dance.
I hesitate to say modern when Handel's music dates
back to 1740 and John Milton's poems are more than a century earlier but
this is at times stunning contemporary dance with precision and timing
especially, when 24 dancers are on stage at once, which is a joy to
watch.
Morris uses his dancers to paint pictures and tell stories, show
emotions and set scenes in a way that sets it apart from other modern
dance classics. It might not have the drama or excitement - Handel and
Milton don't do excitement - but it has a depth and elegance that will
be a challenge to surpass.
A moment in the opening sequence when all the
dancers run at full speed in a loop on opposite diagonals crossing in
the centre of the stage without colliding or deviating in direction or
pace was breathtaking. The hours of practice and bruises for just that
short section can only be imagined.
There are other fine moments such as when the
company flutter like a flock of starlings around the stage in a poem we
assume was about birds - more of that later - and there is humour in
there such as the tongue in cheek slapping dance among the men or the
hunting scene where two girls are the prey hiding among the trees and
shrubs formed by rest of the company chased by a male dancers as a pack
of dogs - who, of course, do what dogs tend to do when they find a tree.
RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE
The choreography is stunning using the full
Hippodrome stage and Mark Morris fully deserved the rapturous applause
when he appeared at the end. He manages to isolate one or two dancers in
the crowd to express a feeling, or co-ordinate several groups . A common
theme was to use groups, or lines of dancers all doing the same thing
but slightly out of sync - rather like a very graceful, very elegant
dancing Mexican wave.
There was one point where a dance downstage
was being mirrored by the same dance at the very rear of the stage
but several seconds behind yet slowly the dance at the rear caught up
until it ended with both dances in perfect time. That sort of thing
takes imagination in choreography and skill in execution.
Morris creates not just dances but tableaux
and shapes with dances becoming a small part of a larger movement which
can spread across the stage. He also challenges convention with his
women at one point lifting his men, or repeating an early dance when a
group of men hold a female dancer in triumph towards the end with a
group of women lifting a man.
Wherever you look there is something going on,
something to make you wonder. The Mark Morris dance group itself is a
revelation with dancers in all shapes and sizes along with beards and
pony tails. It gives the dancers an air of everyman, of being a part of
all humanity rather than just a dancer - and an exceptional one at
that.
It all flowed seamlessly and seemed effortless - of course we know
it was not. Blood is sweated to reach within touching distance of
perfection.
The sets are simple and effective with gause
screens, washes of changing colour and unobtrusive lightingsetting
the mood while the equally simple costumes in pastel shades help
the dancers in creating the images and expressing the emotions of the
poems and music.
FAULTLESS ORCHESTRA
And for the music there was English National
Opera orchestra who were faultless under conductor Jane Glover with a
clarity and brightness that enhanced Handel's music and one could not
fault the New London Chamber Choir or the soloists sopranos Elizabeth
Watts and Sarah-Jane Brandon, Tenor Mark Padmore and bass baritone
Andrew Foster-Williams.
It was all First Division stuff and without
the dance it would still have been an enjoyable performance but sadly
this was also the Achilles heel of the piece.
Each of the 32 dances to an extent depends
upon the poem to both set the scene and let the audience know what is
going on - let us be honest Milton's poems are not exactly top of most
people's reading lists and the Handel piece is rarely performed.
But making out the words is an impossible task
which is no real fault of the singers - for a start they are down in the
pit which hardly helps their cause and then the poems as songs to
Handel's music and the poems to be read and understood are two different
beasts.
Thus the audience is left marvelling at the
dance and how it flows wonderfully with the music but as both the
music and the dance depend upon the poems for inspiration there is an
element lacking
The poems are printed in the programme but
that is really for reference later. It might sound sacrilege for
something sung in English but surtitles might just be worth considering.
Roger Clarke
VIDEO
http://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/
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