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posted 05/20/10 03:58 PM | updated 05/20/10 03:58 PM
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Gloria! Mark Morris Dance Group with Mark Morris, Conductor

By Michael van Baker
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Curiously, Mark Morris is 55 53 years old. It's hard in some ways to reconcile that figure with what you hear in his voice--he's irrepressible. He's made a long career in dancing out his pagan temperament, splayed against his catholic comprehension of the body. Of course Baroque satyrs get old, too, and maybe one reason they're often seen with grapes and wine is that they also age well.

In his Mark Morris preview on Crosscut, Roger Downey tells you that you can't miss one particular work in the upcoming program at the Paramount Theatre (Fri. & Sat 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m.): "Despite its exuberant title, 'Gloria' ranges across more emotions and moods in its half-hour than many a full-evening drama or ballet." (Hear Morris preview the evening himself, here.)

Morris first got inside the music, he says, while he was in the Franklin H.S. choir, a "motley and enthusiastic" group where he sang tenor. In 1981, when he created the dance, he was still fiddling with the hinges on the doors of perception, and what arrived was something like a rosy crucifixion, a cross-section of life's painful beauty and beautiful pain. Set to Vivaldi.

(Also on the program are Haydn's "A Lake" and Bach's "Jesu, meine Freude," which "talks about a bunch of Jesus-y things" and is intended as a tribute, just not to Jesus.)

For "Gloria," Morris will be on the podium, leading the Seattle Symphony (Doug Fullington's Tudor Choir is also joining for the evening). Conducting "is the opposite of dancing," notes Morris in a typically off-speed fashion. "A, you're facing the wrong direction, and B, you're pulling a performance out of people who are facing the crowd." Also, in case you're wondering: "I have to conduct barefoot because I perspire so heavily--just sloshing."

He can afford to leave you laughing about that, because the works will wring you out.

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Mr. Morris
I am 53 and a half years old.
xo,

Mark.
Comment by Mark Morris
3 days ago
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RE: Mr. Morris
Wikipedia backs you up, Mr. Morris! My apologies, I picked up the error from that Roger Downey article I mention. I'll alert them, as well.
Comment by Michael van Baker
2 days ago
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