Spring Arrives Early at Mark Morris

Spring this year arrived, for me, neither on the first warm day, nor when the clocks went forward, nor on the day I left my winter coat at home (never mind that it’s been hauled back out of the closet since).

I felt the full force of spring last Sunday in the form of three uplifting, invigorating dances in a program celebrating 30 years of the Mark Morris Dance Group.

The dances – one of which, “Festival Dance,” was a world premiere – fused classical and contemporary styles in a way that conveyed the timeless beauty of movement and spirit. Live music played by accomplished musicians greatly enhanced the performance, which moved from a piece about falling in love (“The Muir”) to one that suggested the onset of spring (“Petrichor”), concluding with the new piece, “Festival Dance,” which portrayed couples in love with both romance and humor.

That Brooklyn, and Fort Greene in particular, has a titan of contemporary dance like Mark Morris on its home turf is a marvelous privilege, perhaps overlooked in the shadow of his neighbor across the road, the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

After early years as a dancer in his own right, Morris formed his Dance Group in 1980 and since then has created more than 120 original works for the company. He has become known as a passionate supporter of music in dance and his work is typically performed to live music. The company has danced around the world, participated in television and film productions, and spent three years from 1988-91 as Belgium’s national dance company. The Mark Morris Dance Center, which provides classes and rehearsal spaces for the community as well as a home for the company, opened in 2001.

In keeping with his choreography, Morris himself is a forceful combination of energy, authority and humor. He checked in with his musicians before Sunday’s matinee, staring hard into the eyes of cellist Andrew Janss.

“All I have to do is just look at you,” Morris said, half-intimidating, half-twinkling, as Janss squirmed. The other musicians laughed, nervously. Morris laughed and made his way to an aisle seat.

Three singers joined the instrumentalists for “The Muir,” which was set to a libretto of Irish and Scottish folk songs, with music by Ludwig van Beethoven. The lyrics made this the most literal dance, with gestures following the words in often comic ways to tell the story of young men yearning for elusive beauties.

Following the cheeky nuances of “The Muir,” “Petrichor” was more transcendent. The group of female dancers fluttered like colorful birds or wind-blown petals, and transported the mind with the beauty of their movements. The name of the dance is a word for the scent of rain upon dry earth, and the piece had a correspondingly earthy sense of seasonal flux and the freshness of spring.

The humor returned in the premiere finale, a dance of couples who pranced like  coeds from the 1950s in a blissful state of new romance. Rita Donahue and Aaron Loux, the lead couple, were particularly charming. With her thick ponytail, creamy complexion and athletic vivacity, Donahue was like a short drink of warm milk.

The six dancers of “The Muir,” several of whom danced in the other pieces also, were especially impressive. Laurel Lynch proved a captivating tease with her combination of charisma, strength and grace. Amber Star Merkins also cut a striking figure and infused her movements with soulful elegance.

The costumes, designed by Martin Pakledinaz, breathed additional life into the dances, with billowy, swinging movements of their own and flashes of strong color against dove-gray shirts and soft brown skirts.

Even when snow and rain blast back into the days, dances like these plant spring firmly in your heart.

“Mark Morris Dance Group: Celebrating Thirty Years” continues at 7:30 p.m. March 25 and 26 and 3 p.m. March 27 at the , 3 Lafayette Avenue. At the time of writing, tickets (which cost $50) remained only for the March 26 performance and can be found here.