P5 – MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP

Pacific, created by Mark Morris originally for the San Francisco Ballet in 1995 and later adapted for the Mark Morris Dance Group, evokes Indian classical dance. Though stark and somewhat detached at times, it bursts into joyous color, embracing glimpses of love before culminating in a whirlwind finale.

Pacific is expansive in its movement vocabulary—dancers extend their arms wide, their chests open, gliding across the stage like birds skimming the water’s surface. The Washington Post wrote of the dancers, “…they jump and turn in such synchrony with Harrison’s stormy music that you feel you’re watching the sound unwind from their bodies.” The dancers of Mark Morris Dance Group move in precise, luminous shapes, reaching, lunging, and turning with thrilling purposefulness.

Choreography: Mark Morris

Music: Lou Harrison – Trio for Violin, Cello, & Piano; 3rd and 4th movements – Dance: Rhapsody: Song, Allegro

Live Music: MMDG Music Ensemble

Costume Design: Martin Pakledinaz

Morris created Ten Suggestions as a solo for himself in 1981, setting it to Alexander Tcherepnin’s evocative Bagatelles for piano. The piece is a deeply personal exploration of movement, embodying the choreographer’s signature qualities—flirtatious and funny yet tinged with moments of sadness. Wearing pink pajamas, the dancer appears to improvise with an almost naïve curiosity, somersaulting, prancing, and engaging with props such as a hoop, a chair, and a hat. They shift fluidly between personas—a clown, a mime, a carefree young child—while the performance unfolds as an investigation of the myriad possibilities of movement and manipulation.

Despite its simplicity, Ten Suggestions is unmistakably specific; no one else would have imagined that exact sequence of gestures. The work is marked by rhythmic incisiveness, playful literalness, and a knowing naïveté, qualities that recur throughout Morris’s choreography. Yet, beneath its lighthearted surface, a quiet melancholy lingers. The dancer’s falls and fleeting moments of stillness reveal an undercurrent of human limitation and vulnerability, adding depth to this seemingly whimsical work.

Choreography: Mark Morris

Music: Alexander Tcherepnin – Bagatelles, Op. 5

Live Music: MMDG Music Ensemble

Mark Morris’s Candleflowerdance is set to Stravinsky’s Serenade in A Major and dedicated to the late writer and feminist Susan Sontag. Befitting the title Candleflowerdance, the stage is adorned with a grand piano positioned on stage left, a pot of flowers nearby, and a line of candles burning in glasses on the opposite side. Morris’s ingenious solution to having the musician on stage is for the dancers not to notice the pianist’s presence. The musician’s role is magnanimous, musically and visually, without the dancers ever resorting to theatrically leaning on the grand.

The mood is equal parts melancholy and play. With an ensemble piece of five dancers dressed in casual slacks and shirts, Candleflowerdance precisely mirrors the music—a Morris trademark. It begins with subtle arm movements, then transitions into a dynamic interplay of push, pull, lean, and collapse. Robotic motions punctuate the piece, as does another Morris specialty: the striking contrast of stillness and movement.

Choreography: Mark Morris

Music: Igor Stravinsky – Serenade in A

Live Music: MMDG Music Ensemble

Costume Design: Katherine M. Patterson

Mark Morris choreographed Going Away Party in 1990 as a tribute to American Western swing, set to 11 lively songs by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. At first glance, it appears to be a lighthearted cowboy romp with swaggering men and flirtatious women. However, by the second song, its wit and brilliance become apparent. The choreography showcases moments of genius, such as an asymmetrical square dance that demands intricate precision from its seven dancers. Folksy, camp, playful, and musically sophisticated, this piece demonstrates how even the most straightforward steps can be layered into an exquisitely intricate dance. Critical Dance wrote that Morris’s Going Away Party is “…thoroughly enjoyable, a little risqué and laugh-out-loud funny at times.”

Choreography: Mark Morris

Music: Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys

Costume Design: Christine Van Loon