Mark Morris

Born in Seattle, WA, and studied with Verla Flowers and Perry Brunson. In the early years of his career, he performed with the dance companies of Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean, Eliot Feld, and the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble. He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980 and has since created more than 120 works for the company. From 1988-91, he was Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national opera house of Belgium. Among works created during his time were three evening-length dances: The Hard Nut; L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato; and Dido and Aeneas. In 1990, he founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. In September of 2001, he opened the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, NY, to provide a home for his company, rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs for local children, and a school which offers dance classes to students of all ages. Morris is also much in demand as a ballet choreographer, has created seven works for the San Francisco Ballet since 1994, and has received commissions from many others. His work is in the repertory of such ballet companies as Dutch National Ballet, New Zealand Ballet, English National Ballet, and The Royal Ballet. Morris is noted for his musicality and has been described as "undeviating in his devotion to music." He has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, English National Opera, and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. In 1991, he was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation. He has received 10 honorary doctorates to date. In 2006, Morris received the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Mayor's Award for Arts & Culture and a WQXR Gramophone Special Recognition Award "for being an American ambassador for classical music at home and abroad." He is the subject of a biography, Mark Morris, by Joan Acocella (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), and Marlowe & Company published a volume of photographs and critical essays entitled Mark Morris' L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato: A Celebration. Morris is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He is a recipient of the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival lifetime achievement award and the prestigious Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society.