Mark Morris (choreographer)

Mark William Morris (August 29, 1956) is an American dancer, choreographer and director. Quotes I was an "other," as people call now. But you know, everybody's other than everybody else...I used what was called the "sissy test" — you know, look at your fingernails; if you do it a certain way, you're a butch or a femme. But it turned into a little bit of a look back when I made up a dance based on the quotidian humiliations of junior high school — that age, that degree of development and that confusion and annoyance that happens. On incorporating the “sissy test” in one of his dance routines in “'Everybody's Other Than Everybody Else': Choreographer Mark Morris” in NPR (2019 Oct 19) I guess once I finish a dance and release it to the public and we're performing it, I'm kind of done... Well, I love watching it, and I love watching other people's work too if it's really good and interesting. But you know, the most exciting part is also very often the most frustrating part: trying to finish something or get it just right or get across something that I'm not sure what it is until it happens.” On completing a dance routine in “'Everybody's Other Than Everybody Else': Choreographer Mark Morris” in NPR (2019 Oct 19) The culture has changed, and times have changed, you know, the whole thing about being queer has changed entirely. So then I was the bad boy, a self-proclaimed homosexual choreographer. In the early ‘80s I said I was gay all the time because it was important politically. On his past reputation of being the “bad boy” in dance in “Dancing Happily Around All Topics” in The New York Times (2013 Jun 6) I like working with grown-up dancers much better, because there’s somebody to talk to at the airport when you’re delayed. In the middle of class, they hate me for it, but I always say, ‘What are you reading right now?’ or ‘Did you see this movie?’ or ‘Who wrote that piece of music?’ I do little quizzes to keep people involved and not just to become robotic dancing machines, because I hate to watch that. On his inclination to work with older dancers in “Dancing Happily Around All Topics” in The New York Times (2013 Jun 6) I don’t, believe it or not. I don’t miss the roar of the crowd. I still get that when I take a bow, if I milk it right. I’m not regretful, but I’m envious sometimes. On the relief of not having to perform any longer in “Dancing Happily Around All Topics” in The New York Times (2013 Jun 6) I believe firmly in that theory that the stuff you learn when you’re very, very young, it sort of stays. The very first dance I made up that was any good, I was about 15, and I’ve been wringing changes out of that ever since. That’s interesting to me. That’s not death. It’s style or something. On how his dancing tastes have changed in “Dancing Happily Around All Topics” in The New York Times (2013 Jun 6) If that means that it's not for everybody, then yes. "Elitist" doesn't need to mean wealthy and conservative; it can also mean specialised and rarefied, and that's no bad thing. On whether dance might be considered an elitist art form in “Portrait of the artist: Mark Morris, choreographer” in The Guardian (2009 Oct 19) External links Category:Choreographers Category:Dancers from the United States Category:LGBT people Category:1956 births Category:Living people