DANCE

Society for the Performing Arts (SPA), bringing the world’s best to Houston, presents Mark Morris Dance Group, Mark Morris, Choreographer.  8 pm, Friday & Saturday, January 15 & 16, 2010, in the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater.

The New York Times calls Mark Morris “the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical.” From its early years as, essentially, Mark Morris and a group of friends, to its contemporary status as a burgeoning dance institution, the Mark Morris Dance Group has stayed true to its founder’s convictions, especially dancing with live music performed by some of the world’s best musicians. Mark Morris Dance Group performances are not just dance at the highest level, but simultaneously, concert-going at the highest level.

For its SPA performances, the Company will perform Excursions with music by Samuel Barber; the tour de force Going Away Party to the music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys; the powerful Italian Concerto, danced to the J.S. Bach score; and the astonishing Grand Duo, considered “one of the masterpieces of the late 20th century” (The Guardian) with music by Lou Harrison.

The Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) was formed in 1980 and gave its first concert that year in New York City. The company’s touring schedule steadily expanded to include cities both in the U.S. and in Europe, and in 1986 it made its first national television program for the PBS series Dance in America. In 1988, MMDG was invited to become the national dance company of Belgium, and spent three years in residence at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. The company returned to the United States in 1991 as one of the world’s leading dance companies, performing across the U.S. and at major international festivals.

Based in Brooklyn, NY, the company has maintained and strengthened its ties to several cities around the world, most notably its West Coast home, Cal Performances in Berkeley, CA, and its Midwest home, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, IL. MMDG also appears regularly in New York City, NY; Boston, MA; Fairfax, VA; Seattle, WA; and at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, MA. MMDG made its debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival in 2002 and at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 2003 and has since been invited to both festivals annually. The company’s London seasons have garnered two Laurence Olivier Awards.

In the fall of 2001, MMDG opened the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, NY, 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. For more information, visit www.mmdg.org.

Special Programs:

Society for the Performing Arts (SPA), in association with the Mark Morris Dance Group and Brookfield Properties’ Devon Energy Tower Two Allen Center, presents Mark Morris: Portraits, the Texas premiere of a collection of a portraits, taken by such world renowned photographers as Annie Leibovitz, Jack Vartoogian and William Wegman, of choreographer and opera director Mark Morris. The photography exhibition is open to the public, and will be on display through Wednesday, January 13, in the lobby of Devon Energy Tower Two Allen Center, 1200 Smith St.

Conversation: Mark Morris - Mark Morris, the American dancer, choreographer, and artistic director, comes to the Menil Collection for a conversation with Houston Ballet artistic director Stanton Welch, Thursday, January 14, 2010, at 7:30 pm. Their discussion will introduce the Mark Morris Dance Group’s Houston performances at Wortham Theater Center, January 15-16, presented by Society for the Performing Arts.