Giannandrea Poesio

Bad boys

Mark Morris Dance Group<br /> Sadler’s Wells Michael Clark Company<br /> The Barbican Sleeping Beauty<br /> Royal Opera House

issue 07 November 2009

Mark Morris Dance Group
Sadler’s Wells

Michael Clark Company
The Barbican

Sleeping Beauty
Royal Opera House

Last week, the 2009 Dance Umbrella season rolled merrily towards its end with performances by two former ‘bad boys’ of the choreographic world. Luckily, neither event looked anything like those boyband comebacks the music industry thrives on these days. After all, Mark Morris and Michael Clark never cease to amaze and enthral audiences, thus remaining, Peter Pan-like, ‘bad boys’ for much longer than actual boyhood. Interestingly, they both presented recent works that allowed seasoned dancegoers to take the pulse of their current artistic creativity.

Those who love Morris’s tongue-in-cheek reading of illustrious scores might be pleased to know that Empire Garden (2009), Charles Ives’s quotations-packed trio for violin, cello and piano, prompts a kaleidoscope of colourful and quirky ideas that surprise with their humorous inventiveness.

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