Mark Morris Dance Group | Press Releases

8 p.m., Saturday, September 15, 2012
Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts

Image: Mark Morris dance company One of the leading dance companies in the world, the renowned Mark Morris Dance Group , performs at the Regina A. Quick Center at 8 p.m., Saturday, September 15, 2012, opening Fairfield University's 2012-13 Arts & Minds season. The program is accompanied by live music performed by the MMDG Music Ensemble and features works that span the choreographer's career. These include: All Fours (2003) to Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 4; Ten Suggestions (1981) to Alexander Tcherepnin's Bagatelles, Op. 5 ; and Festival Dance (2011) to Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Piano Trio No. 5 in E Major, Op. 83. A post-performance Question & Answer session with Mark Morris, the company's founder, choreographer and artistic director follows the performance. Tickets are $50, $45 and $35.

Heralded as "the most prodigiously gifted choreographer of the post-Balanchine era" by TIME Magazine, Mark Morris formed the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) in 1980. The company gave its first concert that year in New York City. Its touring schedule steadily expanded to include cities both in the U.S. and in Europe, and in 1986 it made its first national television program for the PBS series Dance in America . In 1988, MMDG was invited to become the national dance company of Belgium, and spent three years in residence at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. The company returned to the United States in 1991 as one of the world's leading dance companies, performing across the U.S. and at major international festivals. Based in Brooklyn, NY, the company has maintained and strengthened its ties to several cities around the world, most notably its West Coast home, Cal Performances in Berkeley, CA, and its Midwest home, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

MMDG appears regularly in New York, NY; Boston, MA; Fairfax, VA; and Seattle, WA. MMDG made its debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival in 2002 and at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 2003, and has since been invited to both festivals annually. From the company's many London seasons, it has garnered two Laurence Olivier Awards. In September of 2001, the Mark Morris Dance Center opened in Brooklyn, NY, to provide a home for the company, rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs for local children, and a school offering dance classes to students of all ages.

MMDG is noted for its commitment to live music, a feature of every performance on its international touring schedule since 1996, and an element that will be part of its upcoming Quick Center appearance. The MMDG Music Ensemble , a core group of accomplished musicians supplemented by a large roster of regular guests, performs with the Dance Group throughout the season at home and on tour and has become integral to the company's creative life.

MMDG collaborates with leading orchestras, opera companies, and musicians, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma for the Emmy Award-winning film Falling Down Stairs (1997); percussionist and composer Zakir Hussain, Mr. Ma and jazz pianist Ethan Iverson in Kolam (2002); The Bad Plus in Violet Cavern (2004); pianists Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson and Yoko Nozaki for Mozart Dances (2006); and with the English National Opera in Four Saints in Three Acts (2000) and King Arthur (2006), among others. MMDG's film and television projects also include Dido and Aeneas, The Hard Nut , two documentaries for the U.K.'s South Bank Show , and PBS' Live From Lincoln Center. While in Brooklyn, members of the ensemble continue to participate in the Mark Morris Dance, Music and Literacy Project in the New York City public school system. For more information, visit www.mmdg.org .

Tickets and subscriptions are available through the Quick Center Box Office: (203) 254-4010, or toll-free 1-877-ARTS-396 (1-877-278-7396). Tickets can also be purchased online at http://www.fairfield.edu/quick .

The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Fairfield University at 1073 North Benson Road in Fairfield, Connecticut. Entrance to the Quick Center is through the Barlow Road gate at 200 Barlow Road. Free, secure parking is available. Access for people with disabilities is available throughout the Quick Center for audience members and performers. Hearing amplification devices are available upon request at the Box Office. Fairfield University is located off exit 22 of Interstate-95. For further information and directions, call (203) 254-4010 or 1-877-278-7396, or visit http://www.fairfield.edu/quick .

Image: The Mark Morris Dance Group are pictured performing "Festival Dance," which is on the program. Photo by Richard Termine.