The Mark Morris Dance Group returns to Cal Performances this month to perform The Hard Nut, a modern dance version of the traditional Nutcracker. The group celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, and in spring 2006, San Francisco Ballet will revive two of choreographer Mark Morris' pieces, Sandpaper Ballet and Sylvia.
Joe Landini: You work a lot on both the East and the West Coast. What kinds of differences do you see when you travel back and forth?
Mark Morris: The one thing is that a lot of people don't have work, it's too bad. The one reason that we're bicoastal is because people want to see us. I didn't choose that so much, though I'm very happy. We work in Berkeley, specifically Cal Performances, but also a lot in the Bay Area in general, including San Francisco Ballet. We're here more than any other place, including New York. We're here two or three times a season, its wonderful. We were here in September, then we did a month-and-a-half tour in Britain, then we're back. The Bay Area is very much a second home for us. If anything, the West Coast audience is, for good or bad, more vocal. So the good part is that they scream hurray or bravo and everything, the bad part is that it's kind of bizarre sometimes.
Some of your work has a camp sensibility. Do you find being a gay artist is an asset, or does it make any difference to you?
So how would my work be different if I were not? I have no idea.
Do you see your work as political?
It's not political. At the point which it becomes political activity, it doesn't work as art usually. It becomes propaganda. With my personal politics, I don't hide anything. I'm not trying to teach anybody a lesson. Obviously, I guess my utopian views on sex, race, sexuality and society, and the way my work happens, what we do in my work, become a style or something. I don't like to tell anybody what to do, except the people who work for me.
In postmodern dance, there's a prejudice against using music, and a lot of young choreographers are not trained how to use music. Do you have an opinion about that?
You know, my generation, I'm going to be 50 this year, didn't use music in the way that I do. I was either way ahead of my time 25 years ago, or way behind. I'm old-fashioned; I believe in the way that I choreograph with music. In my observation, 95% of world cultures dance to music. It's only a few intellectual New Yorkers 40 years ago that decided to divorce themselves of music. I steer clear of that. Actually, younger people who are choreographing now are using music that I love. There's a big variety, and it's interesting, there's a renaissance. There's lots of good music being danced to.
Your company is celebrating its 25th anniversary, you have the Mark Morris Dance Center in New York, and The Hard Nut is a West Coast tradition. Do you have any fear of becoming an institution?
If it's a bad institution. The fact is that people of my generation increasingly rule the world. It's good unless they're evil. At some point, everyone takes over what happens in their culture. I'm a big shot in the culture, so I'm doing things that I believe in. So for me to have a building doesn't make me an evil landlord. The Hard Nut going on for so many years and becoming a wonderful tradition in the Bay Area, I think it's a great thing. I'm not ashamed of having a lot of people see our really good shows in a big theater. I'm not of the school that thinks if nobody comes, it must be intellectually superior.
In the spring, you're conducting Vivaldi's Gloria for your piece Gloria at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
I can't believe we announced that, but I'd rather announce it than have it be a horrible surprise. Everybody who loves music thinks that he could make a good conductor, but I'll tell you, it's pretty hard. I'm doing a piece that I know very, very well, and I'm using players that I know really well, and I've been practicing already for several sessions over the last couple of months. It's very nervous-making.
What creative directions will you go in the future?
You know, we're really busy, and I'm booked ahead two, three, four years for big projects like operas and full-length pieces and stuff. So I'm doing what I want, and I wish everybody could have a job where he could do what he wanted, but I'm doing this. My chief love is working with my company, and then I work with ballet companies such as the wonderful San Francisco Ballet, and I work in opera a lot. I've got it made, sort of.
The Hard Nut plays Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, through Dec. 18. Tickets: (510) 642-9988 or www.Tickets.com. For San Francisco Ballet performances, see www.calperfs.berkeley.edu.