Mark Morris Dance Group, July 23 2026

Stephanie and I saw the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Joyce Theater on July 23, 2026. It was a program called *American Heartbeat: Country and Western.* We'd seen MMDG at the Joyce the year before. That program ended with a piece called "Going Away Party," dances done to recordings by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. I was crazy for that piece and of course they were doing it again on this country and western-themed program. And I was curious to see how Morris would work with George Jones...

"Home (Excerpt 1)" (1993)

Music: Rob Wasserman

The music was fiddle playing - - hard to tell if it was one or two fiddles, but nothing but fiddle. There were six dancers standing in a line. They were most often dancing in unison, sometimes doing that Morris thing where a movement works its way through the dancers, starting with one person then picked up by another and another. The charm of this piece came from the dancers smiling at each other. It also seemed like their arm movements were left up to the dancers, they seemed to be free and loose.

*Deck of Cards* (1983)

This was made up of three songs:

"Gear Jammer" by Jimmy Logsdon

This was a solo for a toy truck! The truck was maybe nine inches tall and three feet long. It came onto a dark stage with its headlights on. It drove around the stage, stopped for a bit here and there. That was the whole piece. The song was about a truck driver so OK - - it was amusing at first but we felt like it went on a little long. It could have been a one-minute bit, three minutes was a little long.

"Say It's Not You" by George Jones

This was a solo danced by Billy Smith, a male dancer wearing an orange dress and pearls. The choreography had a strong Isadora Duncan vibe, lots of shoulder and adagio arms, lots of swirling of the skirt. I thought the three elements of the piece didn't really go together - - the man in the orange dress, the Duncanish dancing, and the George Jones song. Stephanie saw a deeper meaning in the song: the man in the song is asking his girlfriend if the floozy they're talking about around town is her. Stephanie thought the message of identity was underlined by having the man present as gender-nonconforming. I didn't see that I now I wish I could see it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbZqMc-SlWM&list=RDMbZqMc-SlWM&start_radio=1

"Deck of Cards" by T. Texas Tyler

This was a talking song like "Gear Jammer," the story of a soldier bringing a deck of cards to a church service and being thrown in the clink. He explains that the cards all remind him of things in the Bible. It was a little cheeky, I liked it a lot. It was danced by our favorite MMDG dancer, Dallas McMurray. His costume was interesting: a military jacket, hat, and shoes, but white boxer shorts instead of pants. This was a dance with a lot of miming, indicating the words. It worked well in this piece but not as well later in other pieces on the program.

The bow at the end of this set was taken by both dancers...and the truck.

"Home (Excerpt 2)"

Another movement from the piece that opened the program. McMurray was one of the six dancers, wearing his soldier outfit. Still hadn't found his pants.

*Songs That Tell a Story* (1982)

"Insured Beyond the Grave" by I. and C. Louvin

"I'll Live With God (To Die No More)" and "Robe of White" by I. and C. Louvin and Hill

"The Great Atomic Power" by I. and C. Louvin and Bain

This was danced by three dancers wearing denim, a man and two women. The dancing was engaging but not at the level of other things on the program. This was the piece that had the miming I didn't care for.

"Home (Excerpt 3)"

Six dancers again. The piece opened with the dancers onstage with no music, backlit with an orange background, seen only in silhouette. Their dancing was highly rhythmic, with a dotted rhythm. This is what I love about tap dancing, that the dancing becomes music itself through the sound of the feet on the floor. The fiddles came in and the lights came up.

Intermission.

The second half was the piece we had seen the year before. I didn't make any notes, I figured I'd enjoy it and quote from last year's review. So here goes.

*Going Away Party* (1990)

Music: songs by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys

"Playboy Theme," "Yearning," "My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You," "Goin' Away Party," "Baby, That Sure Would Go Good," "Milk Cow Blues," "Crippled Turkey," "When You Leave Amarillo Turn Out the Lights"

The dancing was delightful with a stealthy undercurrent of drama. It was done for seven dancers, three male/female couples and one extra guy who represented the occasional heartache in the songs. The dancing sometimes used square dance iconography, but off kilter since one of the four couples was a single. And we got a nice dose of the Mark Morris cheekiness, sometimes verging on raunchy. But never coarse, always from a place of whimsy and high spirits.