Mark Morris
Over the last 40 years, Mark Morris has established a reputation as the most musical of choreographers. Inspired by both baroque and twentieth-century music, he\u2019s most famously choreographed Purcell\u2019s \u201cDido and Aeneas\u201d \u2013 he danced both Dido and the sorceress himself - and his witty version of The Nutcracker, \u201cThe Hard Nut\u201d, has been so popular that it\u2019s been staged every year for almost 30 years. Mark Morris has worked in opera too, directing and choreographing productions for the Metropolitan Opera, the English National Opera and The Royal Opera, among others. He tours extensively but home is the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, which runs outreach programmes into the local New York community. He\u2019s received numerous awards, including the Leonard Bernstein Award for the Elevation of Music in Society.
In a humorous and revealing interview, Mark Morris looks back on his childhood in Seattle and his childhood passion for music and dance. It wasn\u2019t very socially acceptable for a boy to become a dancer: \u201cIf you were in dance, you were a sissy. But I also was a sissy so what\u2019s the problem?\u201d He talks too about losing many friends to AIDS, and fearing that his own time was limited, a pressure that created a manic burst of creative energy.
Music choices include Germaine Tailleferre, a French composer from the twenties whom he believes is unjustly neglected; Scarlatti; Handel; Lou Harrison; and Erik Satie.
Produced by Elizabeth Burke\nA Loftus production for BBC Radio 3\n