Getting to know Alex Meeth
Our Tour Season continues in Illinois and Florida
Mark Morris: Music I Want You To Hear
At the Mark Morris Dance Center: Black History Month Programming
On the Membership Dashboard: Mark Morris in Conversation
World Premiere at The Kennedy Center as part of the Earth to Space Festival!
MOON will premiere April 4 followed by two performances on April 5.
The Mark Morris Dance Group returns to The Kennedy Center with a world-premiere work, MOON, co-commissioned by the Kennedy Center and inspired by the Golden Record on the 1977 Voyager meant to communicate with extraterrestrials. Mark Morris is “interested in how the Moon came to be our fall-in-love token, and the mystery and glamour of it.”
MOON rehearsals (Photo: Christopher Duggan
“MOON is a dance and music show built on thoughts and studies of our Moon. The source of so much mystery, curiosity, ritual, superstition, art and fascination, there is a lot to celebrate and to puzzle over. Our Earth and its Moon are a match made in heaven, with our Moon as a dazzling accessory to Earth’s terrible beauty. Moon is credited with time and tide, fertility, power, and romance. The desire to touch the moon and know about it has always driven us, as has the compulsion to make contact with potential beings on other heavenly bodies. The famed, futile Golden Record which was thrown into space aboard Voyager in 1977 is a perfect example of our curiosity and enormous ego. I have used it and a variety of other materials: textual, visual, and musical as sources of imagination in the construction of this piece.
The Space Program, The Moon Landing, the 12 Earthlings who have walked thereon…so many passes have been made at and beyond the moon, but the occasional Moon Walk is not enough to satisfy our Earthly need to spread the news about ourselves and wait, no doubt forever for a response. I hope to provide a possible way to observe and enjoy Moon and Space, without understanding a thing.”
MOON rehearsals with Joslin Vezeau and Billy Smith (Photo: Christopher Duggan)
MOON is commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in partnership with Arizona Arts Live, University of Arizona; Cal Performances, UC Berkeley; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and Mark Morris Dance Group.
Getting to know Alex Meeth
5 questions with new company apprentice Alex Meeth
(Photo: David Orr)
Mark Morris Dance Group: When did you start dancing?
Alex Meeth: I started taking dance classes when I turned 13 years old. After spending much of my earlier childhood near the studio, watching my sister dance, I was invited to join in with a group of other boys. At the time, I was more involved with theater/musicals, and I thought dance classes would be great supplemental training.
MMDG: When did you know that you wanted to pursue dance professionally?
AM: In my senior year of high school I realized I wanted to fully commit and pursue dance professionally. I knew I would need more training, so in an effort to holistically expand my technique, artistry, and dance knowledge, I chose a postsecondary liberal arts education.
MMDG: Who has been the greatest influence on your development as a dancer?
AM: My first ballet teacher, Eddy Bray, certainly holds most credit for starting me on this path, and inspiring me as a teacher and mentor. But so many others deserve mention, including several of my college professors: Kurt Douglas, Marcus Schulkind, Alissa Cardone, Joy Davis, Daniel Pelzig, Linda Monich, and others.
MMDG: When did you first learn about Mark Morris?
AM: I initially heard of Mark Morris in a “Dance History” course my freshman year of college. Later that year, I became much more familiar with his work and legacy when [former company member] Marjorie Folkman came to our school and staged Gloria.
MMDG: What is most exciting to you about dancing with the Mark Morris Dance Group?
AM: It is an absolute treat to work and perform alongside the incredible dancers and musicians of MMDG, and I look forward to learning and exploring more of Mark’s diverse repertoire!
Our Tour Season continues in Illinois and Florida
Via Dolorosa (Photo: Chris Hardy)
Join us in Illinois at the Marion Cultural and Civic Center on February 18 and the Krannert Center in Urbana on February 21-22. At both venues we’ll be performing robust repertory programs that include beloved works from the past like Going Away Party and Polka, along with newer dances like Via Dolorosa, which premiered in 2024 at Cal Performances in Berkeley, CA.
After Illinois, we head to Florida for a 6-show engagement with Sarasota Ballet at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, February 28-March 3. In Sarasota, we’ll perform Pacific (originally created for the San Francisco Ballet), Ten Suggestions, Candleflowerdance, and Going Away Party.
Mark Morris: Music I Want You To Hear
In celebration of Black History Month, we invited former MMDG Music Director and frequent Mark Morris collaborator Ethan Iverson to put together a playlist of pianist and composer James P. Johnson’s music, which will be featured in a world premiere at The Joyce Theater this summer.
Happy listening.
At the Dance Center:
Black History Month Programming
To celebrate Black History Month, the Mark Morris Dance Center is offering a NEW 6-Week Intro Series, Intro to Lindy Hop, as well as a partnership with Urban Bush Women for the workshop Dance for Every Body.
For absolute beginners, Intro to Lindy Hop is the perfect introduction to the fundamentals of this historically Black genre. The classes will be an exploration of solo jazz movement and partnered dancing, intertwining layers of historical context and evolution of the genre.
Urban Bush Women’s Dance for Every Body is a movement jam/dance class that embraces the idea that each individual has a unique and important contribution to make, and that our bodies are a powerful source of agency. The goal is for “every body” to find their level of challenge and comfort and partake according to their abilities, and to appreciate the groups’ diversity as an attribute to their community. This is a movement class designed for the community so no prior dance experience is needed. Participants explore UBW’s technique with close attention to the use of breath, weight, call and response and polyrhythm.
On the Membership Dashboard
Mark Morris in Conversation
In addition to being an exceptional choreographer and dancer, Mark Morris is also a captivating, funny, and thoughtful speaker. This members-only digital collection features interviews with Mark Morris that span from the late 1980s to a 2014 conversation at Jacob’s Pillow.
Sneak a peek at this exhibit with the clip below from a 1996 post-showing talk at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University while the company was in residence. This Q&A followed a studio rehearsal of I Don’t Want to Love set to the music of Claudio Monteverdi.
Log into your membership dashboard to see more. If you’re not yet a member, contact Lauren Grant at lauren.grant@mmdg.org or join below.