Dance 10 Looks 10

Braved the fierce winter weather last night (the blizzard started just as I exited the Atlantic Ave station in Brooklyn) to attend Mark Morris Dance at BAM. And though I was tired and distracted, I'll hand it to him---the company continues to set the standard for quality, innovation, costuming, and staging in contemporary dance. Yet, I was strangely unmoved by the experience, which confirms something I have known about myself for a while now.

My dance card, so to speak, is usually nearly empty. Aside from being a fan of Nicholas Leichter and a very few others I follow around Manhattan, you will rarely find me in dance audiences. I mostly gave up on contemporary and classical dance several years ago. In the hierarchy of what I will pay to see, it's opera/symphony/theater in the first tier, ballet/dance in the second, and Broadway musicals in the third tier (meaning, I'll go, if you pay).

I have seen enough ballet and modern dance to appreciate---even admire---the technical skills, training, and artistry of great performance. But my tastes in dance, I realized, are basically fairly pedestrian. Swan Lake? I'm there. The WhozitWhatzit in Four Part Whatchamacallit? Uh....maybe next year...??

OK, there, I've said it.