Mark William Morris (born August 29, 1956) is an American dancer, choreographer and director whose work is acclaimed for its craftsmanship, ingenuity, humor, and at times eclectic musical accompaniments. Morris is popular among dance aficionados, the music world, as well as mainstream audiences. Morris grew up in Seattle, Washington, in a family that appreciated music and dance and nurtured his budding talents; his father Joe taught him to read music and his mother Maxine introduced him to flamenco and ballet. Joe was a high school teacher while Maxine cared for the children at home.: 15 Morris had two older sisters, Marianne and Maureen.: 15 Everyone in his family were performers, playing instruments, singing in chorus, and dancing.: 16 In grade school Morris's neighborhood population changed, with many Black and Asian families moving in, and many white families moving out, with exceptions such as the Morrises.: 18 This led to flourishing art from many different cultures, including a Japanese Bon Odori festival, as well as a Samoan dance ensemble at Morris's high school,: 18 influencing Morris's later interest in dance cultures outside of Western dance. He began Spanish dance training with Verla Flowers at age eight.: 21 Flowers also introduced Morris to ballet, which was considered an effeminate art form even then.: 22 He also participated in a folk dance group, the Koleda Folk Ensemble, for many years of his childhood, which is said to have had a profound effect on his later choreography.: 26 Throughout Morris's childhood he experienced discrimination for appearing effeminate, which contributed to much of his later choreography.: 25 Koleda had a variety of sexual identities and orientations, which is why it was so important to him.: 31 By age 14 he had choreographed his first modern piece, and by 15 his first ballet piece.: 33 When Morris was 16, his father died.: 40 His father's death and their relationship contributed to Morris's later piece Dad’s Charts.: 40 After graduating from high school, Morris moved to Madrid to study flamenco with the goal of becoming a Spanish dancer, and briefly toured with the Royal Chamber Ballet of Madrid.: 40 He returned home to Seattle after five months, having experienced ongoing discrimination in Spain for being gay.: 41 He then trained for a year and a half with Perry Brunson, formerly of the Joffrey Ballet.: 41 He then moved to New York at 19 to begin his career as a choreographer.: 41 Once in New ... More information...
According to PR-model, markmorrisdancegroup.org is ranked 525,292nd in multilingual Wikipedia, in particular this website is ranked 298,983rd in English Wikipedia.
The website is placed before eriks.nl and after scuolacaruano.it in the BestRef global ranking of the most important sources of Wikipedia.
