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Don Rosenberg  |  February 25, 2013

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 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."
DANCECleveland

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