Wednesday, March 20, 2024 performance reviewed by Leigh Donlan
Mark Morris is one of the most musical contemporary choreographers today. He produces music shows, not dance shows. The Look of Love is yet another masterpiece that exemplifies this music leading principle, set to 13 of some of hit-maker Burt Bacharach’s most famous songs. Bacharach endorsed the show just before his 2023 passing at the age of 94, saying “For many years, I’ve wanted to see my music reimagined in some kind of theatrical production – not just a jukebox musical formula of songs, but an original work with its own story and appeal.” He called Morris “an ideal collaborator whose brilliant choreography and deep musicality give songs new meaning and dimension.”
A tinkling of piano keys from Ethan Iverson opens the evening-length show, commencing with the old-timey jazz rendition of “Alfie” and moving seamlessly into “What the World Needs Now” as dancers gently wander onto the stage. We immediately see that the music is the dance, and the dance is but a reflection of what we are hearing, which was Iverson’s thoughtful rearrangements of Bacharach’s original scores.
We hear the phenomenal Marcy Harriell, Clinton Curtis and Blaire Reinhard’s smooth and upswinging voices accenting the words “WORLD” and “LOVE sweet LOVE” as dancers loosely throw their arms skyward, reaching their hands in plea and invitation gestures, while airborne in various steps and jumps. Their movements are deceptively simple and unassuming, like ordinary people dancing in their kitchens to a familiar radio song. The variety of body types, ages and ethnicities is relatable. No one dancer looks or moves the same, yet they all exhibit extraordinary technical finesse. The Issac Mizrahi costumes are also deceptively simple, loose frocks of simple lines and patterns but in vibrant colors of orange, pink, yellow, lavender and mossy greens. The dancers move around a center cluster of similarly hued chairs, like petals of a blossoming flower.
Other songs were more linear in their choreographic visual arrangements. “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” crossed dancers across the stage in functional lines, like busy Bay Area freeways, bodies propelling forward in rhythmic precision, a paced and steady stream of traffic, void of human connectivity and emotion.
“Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” delighted as it began with drum rim ticks from Vinnie Sperrazza and stray trumpet notes from Jonathan Finlayson like drops of water falling on hard and soft surfaces, the dancers’ accents plopping on heavy, downward beats. They jump over puddles and shelter under chair cushions. In “Message to Michael,” dancers gather at the feet of solo dancer Dallas McMurray as he seemingly preaches to them the ways of love. Individuals fly away in avian movements, pair up into pas de deux, become entangled and frustrated, and ultimately return to McMurray’s feet for apparent consolation and reasoning.
In “The Look of Love,” Harriell’s sultry, intoxicating voice floated over two dancers while they explored their freshly found love, their bodies slow and soft, drifting in and out of heady lifts and bows of reverence.
The show ends with the infectious “I Say a Little Prayer” where everyone gave their all – musicians, singers and dancers – grounding their devotion in heavy percussion, rich vocal harmonies and earthbound movements, the final arched formation opening towards the audience in an offering, with an audible “Amen” from the orchestra pit.
The Look of Love is one of Morris’ best works yet – the first major work since his successful 2017 Beatles tribute, Pepperland, and yet another in a remarkably long (40+ years) stretch of intensely musical works. This one is 65 minutes of pure joy and, of course, a lot of love.
Mark Morris Dance Group in “The Look of Love” runs through March 23, 2024, at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn, New York.
