Stage Access MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP’S GRAND DUO

Wearing tunics or bare chested in sarong-like garb, the dancers emerge from the darkened stage. From beginning to end, their movements almost seem to be a call and response to the two instruments — sometimes amplifying one side of the musical dialogue and sometimes the other. When the piano thunders the kind of dark chords that could open a sci-fi thriller film, arms emerge up high from stiff torsos into two-fingered points, ever angling in new directions. It is akin to seeing a flock of birds feeling the onset of a thunderstorm. As the music energizes, their entire arms move up and down. You, too, may feel they are following musical commands to do so, with no choice. When the violin takes over, arms outstretch to finger curls yet again to its high-note energy. For this writer, it was as though Morris and Harrison’s collaboration let us spy in on the moment when dinosaurs realize they are possibly now birds.

Stage Access Presents a Dance World Classic

In solo spots, duets, triplets, and, most of all as a full ensemble, the Mark Morris Dance Group brings three different moods to this score by Harrison. Not plot-driven but gesture-rich, Morris’s choreography is laced with micro-vignettes open to interpretation, as if inviting us to share in a wordless session on an analyst’s couch, dissecting a dream bordering on nightmare. When the second scene opens, the dancers are like mechanical toys intent on using their bodies to dazzle us with geometries. At another point, the ensemble breaks into sparring gangs periodically fast frozen into poses. Those idiosyncratic two-finger bird gestures hint at a return when they emerge from dancers alternating between motionless pose and unstoppable. It’s as if the dancers are cemented to the violin’s rant — and it is ranting.

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About the Author: Amy Munice

Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.

Amy hopes the magazine’s click-a-picture-to-read-a-vivid-account format will nourish those ever hunting for under-discovered cultural treasures. She especially loves writing articles about travel finds, showcasing works by cultural warriors of a progressive bent, and shining a light on bold, creative strokes by fledgling artists in all genres.

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