Tag: Mark Morris Dance Group

Dance Workshops For Parkinson’s Sufferers

Mark Morris Dance Group LogoThe Mark Morris Dance Group has been holding specific dance workshops for students & Parkinson’s sufferers, namely the company’s Dance for PD (Parkinson’s Disease) programme. Through this community-lead strand, and much like Rambert’s and English National Ballet’s similar work, the companies provide refuge and enjoyment for the sufferers through dance.

Much research has shown that dance can hugely improve the quality of life of people with Parkinson’s Disease, with many rehabilitation programmes focusing on movement and the use of the body to improve experiences whilst suffering with the disease. In particular for 2015, the Mark Morris Dance Group will be bringing its Dance for PD programme to the Sydney Opera House in June, alongside the company’s performance programme for the iconic venue.

For people with Parkinson’s and their carers, a free community dance class lead by dancers from the Mark Morris Dance Group will be held in June, alongside the Australian-based dancer Erica-Rose Jeffery who is the Dance For Parkinson’s Australia programme co-ordinator. Providing improved experiences for the sufferers is paramount to this work, and being able to engage simultaneously with the Mark Morris Dance Group will enhance the experience, much like the ethos of the aforementioned UK programmes.

For dance teachers, there will be a two-day introductory teachers’ training workshop held during June too, aiming to assist in growing the network of teachers qualified to lead dance classes for those with Parkinson’s Disease. The Mark Morris Dance Group will also hold two education workshops for school students, including a dance class for students with physical and intellectual disabilities, and a masterclass for more talented dance school students. The company’s visit to Australia, therefore, seems to be a wholly fulfilling venture, and is not one to be missed.

Mark Morris Dance Group Split For Global Tour

Mark Morris Dance Group LogoThe Mark Morris Dance Group, in order to fulfil their global tour in October and November 2014, will be going both east and west: for the first time in the company’s 34 year history, it will split into two groups. Half the troupe’s dancers will tour the United States, Scotland, Italy and Switzerland, while the remainder will head for Cambodia, East Timor and Taiwan. The company will then reunite in Shenzhen, China on 11 November. The company spends around half of each year touring.

The Asian part of the tour is part of of the United States State Department’s DanceMotion USA, a cultural diplomacy programme in partnership with the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Numerous activities are planned in addition to the performances, including choreography workshops, the chance to work with a number of professional dance companies, and also with female victims of domestic violence and female factory workers in Taiwan.

Within both sections of the tour, the company members will begin ‘the Polka Project’, taking the last section of Morris’s 1993 “Grand Duo”, and teaching it to the professional, amateur and student groups they encounter in an educational and developmental strand.

On each tour, the company will perform Morris’s newest work, “Words” which premiered at Fall for Dance on 8 October. “Words” will be performed by eight dancers from each group while they are on the separate tours, and in China it will be performed by the full 16 member cast.

“Words” was created in order to be flexible, in terms if the number of pieces of music, the number of dancers in a particular section, even the sequence of dances, much like Cunningham’s work. The company often encounters spaces that are too small, with a floor that’s too hard, but Morris has built those factors in so the piece can be presented anywhere.