guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 October 2009 23.00 BST
'Who would I most like to work with? Handel – he taught me everything, and he's not around to take the credit'
What got you started?
Every child dances, and then you learn not to. So I always danced around, and then, when I was eight, I saw a flamenco dance concert – and I was sold.
What was your big breakthrough?
When I made my first dance, which I called Barstow, at age 15. And when my company played at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1984, and [the New Yorker's] dance critic Arlene Croce said I was worth watching.
Is there any truth in the old saying: art is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration?
No, that's nonsense. I don't seek inspiration, and my work is also not a horrible drudgery. So maybe it's exactly 50%.
What's the greatest threat to dance today?
Dance itself. The one reason people don't take dance seriously is because a lot of choreographers don't take dance seriously. Audiences don't want to see the kind of self-indulgent, boring dance that is so prevalent today.
What one song would work as the soundtrack to your life?
Bach's B Minor mass, because there's nothing wrong with it.
Is dance an elitist art form?
If that means that it's not for everybody, then yes. "Elitist" doesn't need to mean wealthy and conservative; it can also mean specialised and rarefied, and that's no bad thing.
Who would you most like to work with?
This is worrisome. If I say somebody who's around today, then I'll get a phone call from their agent. So I'll have George Frideric Handel, because he taught me everything I know, but isn't around to take the credit.
Which work do you wish you had written yourself?
Michel Fokine's Les Sylphides [first staged in 1909]. It's the most gorgeous dance in the world.
What's the best advice anyone ever gave you?
Choreographer Lar Lubovitch once said to me: "You're not going to start a dance company, are you?" It was a warning about how strange and difficult it would be. And that's true – but I like it.
What's the worst thing anyone has ever said about your work?
A dance critic once called my piece The Death of Socrates "inert". Which I found puzzling, because doesn't that mean it doesn't move? I've been thinking about that for the last 20 years.
In short
Born: Seattle, 1956.
Career: Formed the Mark Morris Dance Company in 1980; has also worked as an opera director. His company perform at Sadler's Wells, London (0844 412 4300), 27–31 October.
High point: "Working with [conductor] James Levine on Orfeo ed Eurydice at the New York Met."
Low point: "When a show I directed, Paul Simon's The Capeman, failed miserably."
Source: guardian.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment