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Mark Morris world premiere


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There's a review of Mark Morris's new premiere, by Paul Parish, in DanceView Times this week:

Cleft For Me

For us in the Bay Area, “Rock of Ages” bears a considerable resemblance to another Morris ballet set to a Schubert Theme and Variations, the solo “Later” which he made as a gift for Joanna Berman to perform upon retiring from the stage (the “Impromptu in B-flat”). The pieces are roughly the same length—both dances are ambiguously melancholy, both involve soft movement with a rich fullness in the phrasing, deceptively simple-looking changes of direction, and an autumnal ripeness sustaining the movement, filling it to bursting. Leventhal begins the dance with a long-drawn-out soutenu turn—standing on both feet he wheels around slowly, leaning forward at the waist some thirty degrees—enormously difficult, though that’s not the point at all, that’s not it, at all. Like “Later,” this dance is NOT about display, it’s about privacy, intimacy, home truths.

Much of the dance could be thought of as moving sculpture. There is a fast section, but even that seems, especially when the men do it, like sculpture that happens in the air, especially a thrilling jump that slices sideways as it turns (though I have to say the women did it with exacting clarity as well, especially Amber Darragh, and Rita Donahue had glorious moments as well).

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