Introductory remarks by Mark Morris: 

“August 18, 1992, at the King’s Theatre, we performed our first show in Edinburgh, Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell. Soon after that, very quickly, almost instantaneously, this city and it’s international festival became our favorite place on earth to perform. We visited here for six consecutive summers, and during that time performed ten programs in three theatres and one sports stadium, taught thousands of students in Lothian region schools, saw innumerable Festival and Fringe performances, and fell deeply in love with the city of Edinburgh and its people.

Tonight we’re celebrating the opening of a spectacular new resource, the just-completed building which houses Dance Base, Scotland’s national dance education center. Several years ago, Morag Deyes, the fabulous artistic director of Dance Base, asked me to be their patron. I was of course honored, and of course said yes. I used to be the only patron, but now they’ve gotten fancy and I have to share my office with Prince Charles, but it’s alright.

We’ve constructed a dance for the occasion, a one time only event, an amalgam of fifteen of the many pieces we’ve performed here over the years. They are, in order of their appearance this evening:

Behemoth
A Lake
Gloria
Dido and Aeneas
Mosaic and United
L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
Bedtime
World Power
The Hard Nut
Beautiful Day
Love Song Waltzes
Lucky Charms
Home
Platée
New Love Song Waltzes

All of these dances were performed here under the aegis of the Edinburgh International Festival and its visionary director Brian McMaster, the man who first brought us here in 1992 and kept us coming all those years. Thank you, thank you, Brian and thank you, James Waters, the festival’s associate director. The dancers are joined tonight by members of the Drumalban Folk Ensemble: Josh Dickinson, Daniel Houghton, and my friend who I met thirty years ago half way around the world in Seattle, James McDonald Reid.

It’s wonderful to be back, I hope to see you again soon, and thank you so much for being with us.”