Mark Morris is so much the brightest star in the dance sky that I figured his company would sell out way ahead of time at McCarter Theatre for Wednesday, March 30. My friend Wilma informs me that, amazingly, tickets remain. As of 9 a.m. today, about 20 tickets remain.
If you just can’t make it, or fail to snag one of the seats and can’t stand to stand, the Lewis Center for the Arts Program in Theater and Dance and the Department of Music will co-sponsor a conversation with Mark Morris and Simon Morrison on Wednesday, March 30, at 5:00 p.m. in 50 McCosh Hall. This event is free and open to the public.
I’m too busy to wax ecstatic about Morris, but here are some words from a press release: Hailed as one of America’s greatest choreographers of the 20th century, Mark Morris founded the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980 and since then has collaborated with a broad array of artistic luminaries ranging from Yo-Yo Ma and Zakir Hussain to The Bad Plus. Morris is noted for his musicality and has been described as “undeviating in his devotion” to scores. His dance company is unsurpassed in its commitment to performing with live music. He has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, English National Opera, and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden.
Morris and Morrison, professor of music at Princeton University, collaborated on a production of Prokofiev’s original 1935 version of Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare, for which Morrison reconstituted the composer’s original intentions and twenty minutes of previously unheard music, and for which Mark Morris provided choreography. The production was premiered at the Bard Summerscape Festival in July 2008, and it is currently on an international tour.
The program includes TWO new works receiving their Princeton premieres, set to live music. Petrichor: set to the String Quartet No.2 by Villa-Lobos, and Festival Dance: set to the Hummel Piano Trio No. 5. The third piece is Grand Duo(1993): Set to music of Lou Harrison.
To read what Tobi Tobias says…
Why no sellout before now? Maybe Princeton is still a ballet town.
Princeton Comment 