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Sunday, April 14th, 2013 12:00 PM

Our new season is here!

DANCECleveland is proud to present the 2013-2014 dance performance series!

For a sneak peek as to what we have in store for you, please take a moment to read the season preview by the Plain Dealer's Don Rosenberg below! more ›

Don Rosenberg
http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2013/04/dancecleveland_will_feature_fi.html#incart_river_default

Monday, February 25th, 2013 12:00 PM

Mark Morris Dance Group advance article The Plain Dealer - 2/24/13

Nothing can replace the visceral impact of live music in the theater. Actors and dancers respond flexibly in the moment when musicians are nearby to team with them.

Not every dance or theater company, alas, can afford to hire an orchestra or chamber ensemble for their performances. In these cases, recorded music must suffice.

One choreographer who insists that musicians are as important as dancers is Mark Morris. The admired American choreographer's more › view stems partly from his deep love of all sorts of music, the principal inspiration for the works he creates for the Mark Morris Dance Group.

When the New York company performs three pieces by its artistic director Saturday at the Palace Theatre in PlayhouseSquare, four members of the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble will be in the house to complement the motion.

The Morris works are set to music by composers slightly off the beaten dance track, including Johann Nepomuk Hummel's Trio for Piano and Strings No. 5 in E major in "Festival Dances" and Erik Satie's score for "Socrates." Pianist Colin Fowler will take part in all of the pieces and serve as soloist in "Canonic 3/4 Studies," playing a slew of waltz etudes by composers he's unable to name.

"The score to that piece is absolutely insane," says Fowler, a Kansas City, Mo., native and graduate of the Juilliard School. "It was put together by Harriet Cavalli, a great pianist who worked with Mark at Jacob's Pillow [dance festivals] decades ago. From my understanding, it's just a mash-up of some of her favorite class pieces. They're between 45 seconds and 2 minutes and all bloody impossible."

Fowler's musical horizons have expanded greatly since he began working with the company six years ago. Morris' musical taste embraces everything from the oldest music to recent and even hot-off-the-presses scores.

PREVIEW

Mark Morris Dance Group

What: The New York company performs the artistic director's "Canonic 3/4 Studies," "Festival Dance" and "Socrates" under the auspices of DanceCleveland, PlayhouseSquare and Cleveland State University.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Palace Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, Cleveland.

Tickets: $20-$65. Go to tinyurl.com/aynvgue or call 216-241-6000.

A number of celebrated Morris works require full orchestra, such as "The Hard Nut," a modern (and wacky) take on Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker." Orchestra and chorus perform with the company in "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato," set to the eponymous Handel oratorio.

It's not all so grand. Much of the Morris repertoire employs chamber music featuring one to five or more players or singers. As Fowler puts it, the choreographer's musical choices "are sometimes surprising and often challenging but always rewarding."

Working with Morris also gratifies because he treats dancers and musicians with equal respect, says cellist Andrew Janss, who will perform in Cleveland this week.

"Mark is pretty specific that he doesn't want the musicians collaborating with the dancers," says Janss, a native of Thousand Oaks, Calif., and graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. "He wants the musicians playing the music. The dancers dance to the music and not the other way around. We don't adjust to their movements."

But they maintain close contact.

"It's great to be able to look up and interact with the dancers during the performance," says Fowler. "We take cues from them and they take cues from us. It's never the same way twice, and Mark doesn't want it to be the same way twice."

Fowler, 31, sees more of the dancers and Morris than other musicians. He's the company's rehearsal pianist when the choreographer works in the studio. He's perused Morris' vast collection of recordings and scores. (Morris occasionally conducts.)

And Fowler remains amazed by the artistic director's musical acuity.

"I consider him much more of a colleague as a musician than as a choreographer," he says. "He knows more about music than most musicians I know, and he has really great ideas about it that he's willing to share.

"Everything comes from the music first. He's listened to the piece and he's worked on the piece. He's really marinated with the music before he would ever choreograph."


Cellist Andrew Janss will join colleagues in the program the Mark Morris Dance Group presents Saturday in Cleveland.�
Phillip Romano
Janss, 28, says Morris sometimes requests tempos that startle both the musicians and the dancers. In "V," which is performed to Schumann's Quintet for Piano and Strings, the slow movement seemed unusually slow to the cellist until he watched a DVD of the work and finally understood what Morris envisioned.

The Morris dancers' ability to assimilate so many musical styles also impresses Janss.

"On top of being incredible dancers, every one of them has an incredible ear," he says. "We do a Bartok trio, Ives quartets, Cowell quartets -- and they all know how to hear the piece structurally. They all know how to count the thing. I know instrumentalists who don't count as well. It's really heartening to see a different genre of art appreciate our genre of art so much."

Fowler and Janss are delighted to work with the Morris company for reasons beyond the artistic. Both are freelancers who fill out their livings with jobs throughout the New York area. Janss, who lives in Harlem, is assistant artistic director of the Omega Ensemble, which performs chamber music. Brooklyn resident Fowler plays organ at a Manhattan church and synagogue and leads an annual choral festival at Carnegie Hall.

Although Fowler will be busy throughout Saturday's program, Janss only plays in the Hummel.

"It's hilarious I get paid the same as he does," says Janss. "Oh, my God, it's like a piano concerto with normal classical violin and cello. Colin is going nuts. And the dancers -- if you take the tempo a little fast, they're coming offstage and they look like they're going to collapse. It's just brutal on them."

Don Rosenberg
http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2013/02/choreographer_mark_morris_plac.html

RELATED COMPANY: Mark Morris Dance Group

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012 12:00 PM

New Pick two mini subscription packages available now!

DANCECleveland is proud to present the all-new "pick two" for $40 mini subscription packages! Simply pick two of the next three 2012-2013 DANCECleveland season performances and save up to 50% off of single ticket prices! Select from the stunning Alonzo King LINES Ballet (Sunday Jan. 28 at 3:00 p.m.), the world renowned Mark Morris Dance Group (Mar.2 at 8:00 p.m.) or the season finale finale by the new breed more › of modern dance, Lucky Plush. All handling and ticket services charges are waived!

All subscribers who purchase will receive DANCECleveland's subscriber perks including the option to purchase additional tickets for friends or family at the discounted subscriber rate, quick, free and easy exchanges through DANCECleveland's office, the inside story to each dance company through our emailed DANCE MATTERS e-newsletter and first opportunity to renew and upgrade seating locations when we announce our next season.

http://www.dancecleveland.org/subscriptions

Saturday, August 11th, 2012 9:45 AM

Doug Elkins' 'Fraulein Maria' bursts with irreverent wit at Hanna Theatre

Say it isn't so, Doug Elkins. You've announced that "Fraulein Maria," your loving goofball of a dance work that sends up "The Sound of Music," is on the last leg of a "So Long, Farewell Tour." Is this a ploy to keep the piece in perpetual circulation? Perhaps putting your brainstorm on the shelf for a while will enhance its delights and make it even more magnetic down the road.

Judging more › by the audience that chuckled and roared through "Fraulein Maria" Friday at the Hanna Theatre in PlayhouseSquare, Elkins' creation is one of the favorite dance things to come to town since it first played the venue in 2009.

And why not? The New York choreographer takes the familiar soundtrack of the movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's sentimental hit and tweaks the narratives to the point of affectionate and whimsical irreverence. In little more than an hour, Elkins employs a banquet of dance styles, including hip-hop, and gender-bending ideas to catapult the story of Maria and her adventures in nanny-hood.
Before the curtain rises, the antic master of ceremonies, Michael Preston (director of the production with Barbara Karger), takes center stage to instruct the audience in singing "Do-Re-Mi" and welcoming Rodgers (on tape) to chat about the movie. Then we're off to the Alps, depicted by dancers stretching long swaths of fabric and Preston adding tiny trees, and the arrival of three Marias – count 'em – including one who will never bear children.

Elkins treats each song as a mini-drama filled with traditional and contemporary details. The costumes resemble what you know from the movie, but the moves and people inside them hail from an era that favors the kinetic and the quirky.

It's impossible not to smile as the nuns (women and man alike) try to solve a problem like "Maria" with all sorts of impish inflections and wave-like gestures. Elkins proves to be the most musical, and inventive, of choreographers as he creates a distinct dance motive for each note in "Do-Re-Mi," a whirlwind of an ensemble piece that takes the dexterous and buoyant dancers to the edge of exhaustion.

Although most of "Fraulein Maria" functions as a mirthful parody, there are moments when hints of darkness descend. As Preston and Elkins, dressed as a nerdy guy with a hat, try to share a park bench during "Edelweiss," their inability to co-exist suggests ominous political forces at play.

But the atmosphere largely is upbeat, funky and surprising. In "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," the eldest Von Trapp daughter, Liesl, is portrayed by a lanky guy who plants a whopping kiss on the lips of a diminutive Rolf. A hooded Elkins shows up in b-boy attire to offer a breakdance variation on "Climb Every Mountain" that brings down the house.

So do the dancers of Doug Elkins and Friends, as the New York company is known. They manage their quicksilver and acrobatic duties with gleeful personality, earning every accolade they deserve during bows to "So Long, Farewell." Let's hope this cheeky confection surfaces again in years to come.

Donald Rosenberg
http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2012/08/elkins_review.html

RELATED COMPANY: Fraulein Maria from Doug Elkins and Friends

Sunday, March 11th, 2012 10:00 AM

Ballet Memphis revels in refinement in Cleveland debut

Some dance companies make an impression by trying to leap past the footlights and into the audience's lap. Others are content to share their art with more poise and subtlety.

Ballet Memphis is among the latter. In its Cleveland debut Saturday at the Ohio Theatre under the auspices of DanceCleveland, the company revealed that refinement, detail and unity are paramount. The dancers are beautifully trained and expressive, equal to all of more › the tasks set before them.

The repertoire Saturday gave the company ample opportunity to convey both extroverted and introspective ideas within compact frameworks. Each piece made its points directly, providing a clear sense of structure and intention, minus material that might extend the narrative beyond its natural boundaries.

Steven McMahon, the company's choreographic associate, explores joy in "Being Here With Other People," which is set to the third movement from Beethoven's Violin Concerto. Although this transcendent music needs no visual component to work its magic, McMahon's response to Beethoven is a genial frolic, with buoyant unison patterns, head and hip twists and playful waving that keep the action light and lively.

Matters are much darker in Julia Adam's poetic "Curtain of Green," a setting of a Eudora Whelty short story about a woman dealing with loss. Danced to piano etudes by Philip Glass, the piece focuses on memory and anguish, with the woman (Crystal Brothers) recalling her lost love (McMahon) in agonized gestures.

As the woman tries to resuscitate him, an African-American boy (Kendall G. Britt Jr.) appears to add mystery and drama to the tale. Adam finds a fine line between violence and compassion as the woman substitutes a caress for a slap. The dancers gave the piece a sweeping and touching performance.

Brothers was back as another troubled woman in Jane Comfort's "S'epanouir," whose title (French for "to blossom") refers to the protagonist's journey from calamity to emotional health. Kirk Whalum's score thrusts the scenario forward from blues to gospel, allowing the deeply communicative Brothers to interact with her vibrant colleagues with increasing hope and elation.

The company comes into full contact with its Southern heritage in Trey McIntyre's "In Dreams," set to six songs performed by Roy Orbison (who also speaks in one clip). Five dancers convey the songs' passionate sentiments in configurations of romantic and athletic design.

McIntyre's choreography is an ideal fit for the Ballet Memphis dancers, who abounded in personality, yet were always mindful of their place as team players.

The night's only work that eschewed elegance for virtuosity was an addition to the program, Robert Battle's "Takademe," a solo based on an Indian dance and performed to Sheila Chandra's dazzling bit of vocal chattering, "Speaking in Tongues."

Battle, new artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (which performs at PlayhouseSquare in May), mirrors the rhythmic eruptions in Chandra's creation with whiplashing arms, taffy-like bends and convulsive leaps. Britt gave the piece a performance of coiled and elastic brilliance.

cleveland.com-review.pdf

Donald Rosenberg
http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2012/03/ballet_memphis_review.html

RELATED COMPANY: Ballet Memphis