Mark Morris’ «Mozart Dances»

Mark Morris has had a banner year. He celebrated his 50th birthday, his company marked its 25th season with a full month of performances at BAM, and his new work, “Mozart Dances,” premiered at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. For it, he drew upon his half century of wisdom and imagination as well as the opportunity of being accompanied by Emanuel Ax on piano, with Louis Langree conducting an accomplished orchestra. The result is an exuberant evening that extrudes Mozart’s music to the third dimension, elucidating it as if with a magnifying glass.

Three acts comprise the work.

“Eleven,” mostly for women, is set to Piano Concerto No. 11 in F major. Lauren Grant, the smallest and fiercest company member, is the leader of the pack, establishing a number of movement motifs that recur throughout – hands held behind the head, elbows out; shooting leg extensions; a hand drifting like a falling leaf; elastic diagonals pulling between upper and lower body. The rest of the women enter and strike poses as Grant lays down, dreaming restlessly. She departs but when she returns the other women follow her, seemingly waiting for a bit of wisdom or a treat. Grant, always precise and radiant, ...