Mark Morris, Mickey Mouse, and Choreomusical Polemic

Abstract

In March 2006, the Mark Morris Dance Group celebrated its 25th anniversary with three programs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.1 The first program was devoted to Morris classics, including Gloria (1981)—the oldest piece in the MMDG repertory performed regularly to this day. It premiered on December 12, 1981, and was revised to its present form in 1984.2 Morris has been both castigated and admired for his use of music; since 1994 he has received honorary doctorate degrees from several renowned music institutions, including the Juilliard School, and in 1996 he made a commitment to perform only with live music. This essay celebrates the anniversary of the MMDG by offering an analysis of the relationship between dance and music in this seminal work. I propose that Gloria can be seen as foundational to, and representative of, the choreomusical aesthetic governing Morris’s oeuvre—an aesthetic that can be seen as polemical rather than as reactionary or sentimental pastiche.

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