“He can disorient the students a little bit, in that the subject matter can fluctuate wildly. “I provide historical context for the course, and Mark Morris brings his perspective as a major artist who has worked with other major artists,” such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Morrison said. “We constructed a course that lets music students learn how choreography operates” and gives dancers insight into the music. 'It was uncanny how Chopin's music spoke so intimately to their most private, long-buried thoughts and memories, evoking childhood happiness and lost love innocent, nobler selves trampled by the harsh rules of life.' Excerpt from Chopin’s Funeral by Benita Eisler Choreographing with Chopin’s music always pulls something strong out of me. “Basically, the course was about how music and dance communicate as art forms,” Morrison said. It drew a range of students, from Princeton undergraduates interested in dance and art direction to musicology grad students. Created for a cast of 50 dancers of the Dutch National Ballet. While he has taught master dance classes, the Princeton class was Morris’ first experience of teaching at the university level. A new short dance film created for Tulsa Ballet. From that relationship sprang the fall course. From Gluck to Grant Still, here is some of the best ballet music ever written. Morrison met Morris when they collaborated in 2008 on a new production of the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet, Romeo and Juliet. The word ‘ballet’ encapsulates the choreography of the production, as well as the classical music written to go with it, and many great composers throughout history have written for the genre. Students viewed taped dance performances and attended a December production of The Hard Nut, Morris’ version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, by his dance company. His course with Morrison looked at the interpretation of works of 19th- and 20th-century composers, such as Satie, Tchaikovsky, and Chopin, by modern choreographers such as George Balanchine and Morris himself. Morris, the winner of a MacArthur “genius” fellowship and numerous awards and honorary degrees, has created more than 120 works for the Mark Morris Dance Company, which he started in 1980. “It’s been a valuable asset to hear what a renowned choreographer has to say about how he works, how he selects music, works with musicians, and how his dancers learn material,” Balzer said. “I saw Morris’ name and asked, ‘How can I get into that class?’” said sophomore Mary Balzer, who plans a career in dance after graduation. It also points up the benefit of having the creator of a modern work of art sitting at the head of the table as students learn about that work. Such straight talk characterizes the teaching style of Morris, an Old Dominion Fellow in Music and a lecturer in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton. “But I wanted it to be not a monument, but organic, a kind of meditation.” Some critic called it a ‘bore-atoria,’” he said, to laughter.
#BALLET CHOREOGRAPHY TO CHOPIN MUSIC HOW TO#
“I was working on how to make it almost nothing. “I spent a year working on this piece,” said Morris, who taught the graduate-level seminar “Modernism in Music and Dance” with Princeton music professor Simon Morrison *97. Amber Star Merkens/courtesy mark morris dance group Socrate,
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