Mark Morris
Mark Morris was born on August 29, 1956 in Seattle, Washington, where he studied as a young man with Verla Flowers and Perry Brunson. In the early years of his career, he performed with Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean, Eliot Feld, and the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble. He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980, and has since created more than 120 works for the company. From 1988—1991, he was Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national opera house of Belgium. Among the works created during his tenure were three evening-length dances: The Hard Nut; L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato; and Dido and Aeneas. In 1990, he founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Morris is also much in demand as a ballet choreographer. He has created six works for the San Francisco Ballet since 1994 and received commissions from American Ballet Theatre, and the Boston Ballet, among others. His work is in the repertory of the Geneva Ballet, New Zealand Ballet, Houston Ballet, English National Ballet, and The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. Morris is noted for his musicality - he has been described as “undeviating in his devotion to music” - and for his “ability to conjure so many contradictory styles and emotions.” He has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for the New York City Opera, English National Opera, and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Morris holds six honorary doctorates and was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma has frequently collaborated with Morris; their projects for MMDG include the 1997 Emmy Award-winning film Falling Down Stairs and the 2002 dance Kolam, created for The Silk Road Project in collaboration with Indian composer Zakir Hussain and jazz pianist Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus. Morris’s film and television projects for MMDG also include Dido and Aeneas, The Hard Nut, and documentaries for PBS’s Dance in America and the U.K.’s South Bank Show. Morris is the subject of a biography by Joan Acocella (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) and Marlowe & Company published Mark Morris’ L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato: A Celebration, a volume of photographs and critical essays. In 2001, he opened the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, New York, his company’s first permanent headquarters in the U.S, housing rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs for local children, as well as a school offering dance classes to students of all ages. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Mark Morris Dance Group.