{"id":106359,"date":"2023-02-20T20:07:57","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T04:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=106359"},"modified":"2023-02-24T13:09:56","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T21:09:56","slug":"mark-morris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/mark-morris\/","title":{"rendered":"Diverse Mark Morris Dance Group uses varied Burt Bacharach music as kaleidoscopic playground"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mark Morris Dance Group performs The Look of Love, Burt Bacharach\u2019s music. Photo by\u00a0<\/strong>Molly Bartels.<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The Look of Love: An Evening of Dance to the Music of Burt Bacharach, <\/em>The Mark Morris Dance Group\u2019s latest, can be appreciated even if the pop composer\u2019s melodies aren\u2019t your fave.<\/p>\n

You might end up, in fact, tickled pink (or orange or yellow).<\/p>\n

The audience at the weekend\u2019s Zellerbach Hall presentation in Berkeley clearly was thrilled. It not only jumped to a standing ovation but clapped enough to encourage choreographer Morris and his performers to take multiple bows.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong>Mary Harriell (left), lead singer <\/em>in The Look of Love; choreographer Mark Morris (center); and arranger Ethan Iverson. Photo by Trevor Izzo.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The music of Bacharach, whose Feb. 8 death at age 94 unexpectedly turned the Feb. 17-19 outing into a bittersweet memorial, was introduced via a melancholy solo-piano opener by Ethan Iverson \u2014 Morris\u2019 musical collaborator and arranger \u2014 on \u201cAlfie,\u201d whose questioning lyric set the tone, \u201cWhat\u2019s it all about?\u201d<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, the most innovative moments in The Look of Love<\/em> came in the form of a little-known, 1958 sci-fi\/horror flick charmer, \u201cThe Blob.\u201d Dancers ended up in a jammed cluster, moving in slow motion and using colored bridge chairs as props and a barricade while singers simulated Mark David lyrics like a deejay intentionally decelerating an LP for effect. The sequence drew both giggles and guffaws.<\/p>\n

Wit and whimsy, of course, have long been Morris staples, along with huge helpings of passion. Indeed, Morris\u2019 most enduring creation, arguably, is 1991\u2019s \u201cThe Hard Nut,\u201d a parody of the classic \u201cNutcracker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Mark Morris Dance Group performs <\/em>The Look of Love, Burt Bacharach\u2019s music. Photo by Skye Schmidt.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Although some pundits wince at the choreographer\u2019s winks to audiences, such as an evergreen in which dancers pat their heart to indicate love, it can nevertheless be fun to see hoofers sneeze at the word pneumonia in \u201cI\u2019ll Never Fall in Love Again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some crowd members appeared slightly befuddled, however, by Morris\u2019 gender-bending, identity changes in \u201cMessage to Michael,\u201d where the lead character becomes a \u201cthey\u201d instead of a \u201che\u201d \u2014 in a song already laden with heaviness.<\/p>\n

Still, most tunes were presented straightforward and unadorned yet showing off the mixed-meter complexity of the music, always with spare sets limited to chairs and cushions, and yet they evoked the imprint of six-time Grammy award vocalist Dionne Warwick, who\u2019s still touring at age 82. \u201cRaindrops Keep Fallin\u2019 on My Head\u201d was an exception, with the dancers repeatedly looking skyward while the voices staccatoed the word \u201cRain\u201d about 71 times before segueing into the rhythms virtually everyone knew.<\/p>\n

The dancing often shone, in sync with Bacharach\u2019s music (which smoothly dips into Brazilian rhythms, jazz and rock) but occasionally becoming more compelling than the repetitiousness of the dancers\u2019 hand and body movements. Meanwhile, Iverson\u2019s arrangements built an exquisite showcase for lead vocalist Mary Harriell, who can alternately be sultry, soulful, a belter, or a jazz singer scat-riffing, a thrush whose voice is amazingly larger than even her massive Afro; backup singers Clinton Curtis and Blaire Reinhard, consistently impeccable in the pit behind Harriell; and Jonathan Finlayson, whose trumpet sometimes punctuated the songs with spurts exuding joy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Burt Bacharach. Photo, courtesy Cal Performances.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Once in a while, though, Hal David\u2019s unsentimental and sometimes pessimistic words clashed with Morris\u2019 upbeat brainstorms.<\/p>\n

Domingo Estrada Jr.\u2019s mini-solos stood out among the dancers, not unlike toddlers in a playground glided, twirled, pranced, stretched, skipped, ran, jumped, rolled on the floor, and stiff-armed the air like a running back on a football field.<\/p>\n

Never to be ignored is fashionista Isaac Mizrahi, whose costume designs justified a gush or two. Primary colors blended with slightly less prominent hues, all in subtle collage patterns. Tunics and skirts and dresses, shorts and long pants, long sleeves and sleeveless, no two dancers dressed alike. Overall, a rainbow kaleidoscope \u2014 similar to the varied skin tones of the performers.<\/p>\n

The 66-year-old Morris, a Seattle native, has been immersed in music since he was 8 and, after seeing a performance by the Jos\u00e9 Greco\u00a0flamenco company,\u00a0decided to become a Spanish dancer. Three years later, having taken classes, he started performing professionally. His entrance into choreography was delayed, however \u2014 until age 14. He launched this troupe in 1980, and quickly developed a reputation for experimentation and out-of-the-box humor that gave him the label \u201cbad boy of modern dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

This presentation is basically a juke-box musical without book. Underscoring that notion was Morris\u2019 injecting \u201cWhat the World Needs Now,\u201d the 65-minute, intermission-less program\u2019s second number that featured a circle dance, the most prevalent motif in the Cal Performances concert; \u201cDo You Know the Way to San Jose?\u201d in which dancers repeatedly turn into jacks-in-a-box sans box, \u201cWalk on By\u201d (which had the audience toe-tapping in unison), \u201cAlways Something There to Remind Me,\u201d \u201cI Say a Little Prayer\u201d (the finale), and the title tune.<\/p>\n

Iverson, who\u2019d previously teamed up with the choreographer for 2017\u2019s Pepperland<\/em>, a tribute to the Beatles, got over-the-top gushy when talking to a scribe for The New York Times<\/em> last year. \u201cI would put Bacharach up there with Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin as part of The American Songbook,\u201d he was quoted as saying. \u201cThese are songs you hear once and never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arranger\u2019s opinion about Bacharach being in the composing firmament could be debated, surely, without demeaning the songwriter\u2019s talent.<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, Morris was forced to cancel after a lone Zellerbach show because of a Covid outbreak. His company has been performing in Berkeley for more than 30 years, though. And this new outing indicates, with apologies to poet Robert Frost, that he has miles to go before he sleeps.<\/p>\n

Upcoming dance concerts at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley include Step Afrika! <\/em>on Feb. 25 and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater<\/em> from April 11 to 16. Info: 510-642-9988 or https:\/\/calperformances.org<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Woody Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a>\u00a0or on his websites,\u00a0https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0https:\/\/vitality press.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mark Morris Dance Group performs The Look of Love, Burt Bacharach\u2019s music. Photo by\u00a0Molly Bartels. The Look of Love: An Evening of Dance to the Music of Burt Bacharach,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":106364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"