Concert dance choreographed purely as an expression of music can range from being something for the eyes to set upon while music is playing — e.g. the kind of light ballet that one often finds with opera or the BBC Proms, where the movement is more of a loose accompaniment to the music rather than the other way around — to being a strong, expressive work that brings new things out of the music and stands firmly in its own, well established character. Mark Morris’ work this evening leaned more toward the former: it contained a lot of clever and fun work that rose well above vapidity, though it never quite managed to find character for itself beyond the music. If it had been set to recorded music, honestly, I’d have thought it a little cheesy but, fortunately, there was a pretty decent piano trio accompanying the first and third pieces, so the choreography didn’t really have to stand above the music for it to be a good show.
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