The company is brilliant!!. They came to Liverpool, the home of the Beatles and thrilled us with their tribute to Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. "Pepperland" was the best dance show I've ever seen. It rocks!

Disappointed. Every dance was the same as the one before and had very little correlation to the (sometimes atonal) music score. And I couldn't see any connection to The Beatles other than once in a while a bit of their music. The reference to the group seemed a bit gratuitous - sort of like a "come on" , sure to draw audience to the show. The dancers executed the moves perfectly - the problem was more the complete lack of sensuality, emotion, connection to the audience. But there sure was a lot of running and jumping and fun! coloured outfits.....

Went to the Mark Morris Dance performance at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley last night (4/19/24). Why in the world Mark put two pieces both with "death" as the theme on the program, perplexes me. Hasn't he heard of yin and yang, black and white, happy and sad rather than sad and sad! The first peace Socrates droned on with a libretto sung (in mournful French) by a tenor with music on the patio composed by velvet aficianado Eric Satie. I can tolerate Mr. Satie's Gymnopedie but not this tripe. The dances seemed to be trying to mimic a 19 th century tableau but just didn't get there. If this had been Paris in 1888, i would have booed the performance ala the French way of showing disapproval. in fact someone in the audience did shout out "boo' but at the end of the entire evening performance. Which leads me to the 2nd piece on the program, the world premier of "Via Dolorosa". Here the harpist was the only accompaniment to the dancers but the harp jutted above the proscenium of the stage and semi-blocked the view of someone in row E, like me. This piece showed glimpses of the Mark Morris i thought i knew. Particularly the vignette of Jesus and Mary which so adeptly showed the relationship between these two seminal characters from childhood to manhood with very thoughtful dance positions by the male dancer. As well, the depiction of the relationship of Jesus to his cross was superb. This piece deserves to live another day unlike the Socrates piece. Even though i was anxious to leave to not miss my Bart connection, this part of the program didn't elect the single "boo" shouted out, in my opinion. That should have blessed the ending of the first piece at the intermission. I look forward to amore balanced/joyous Mark Morris at a future performance.

The choreography felt stale and lack any innovation. It was highly predicatable (when they played the song Walk on By, that is just what the dancers did--they just walked on by). This could have been choreographed in the 50's, 60's or 70's.