DATE: Thursday, May 1, 1997                 TAG: 9705010560

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: DANCE REVIEW 

SOURCE: BY SUE VANHECKE, SPECIAL TO THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   37 lines

MORRIS DANCERS PROVOCATIVE IN FESTIVAL SHOW

With inspired musical choices and choreography rife with juxtapositions and contradictions, Mark Morris Dance Group presented a provocative program Wednesday.

It was the first of the company's two-night engagement at the Virginia Waterfront International Arts Festival.

The evening commenced with ``A Lake,'' to Haydn's Horn Concerto No. 2 in D, an unlikely accompaniment for any modern dance choreographer but Morris, a classical music connoisseur.

The corps was courtly with emphasis on a one-armed, upturned port de bras. Groups of dancers fell into gorgeous tableaux of lines and forms - arms seeking, legs reaching - during the mournful adagio, then turned buoyant with jubilant jumps and strong, angular arms.

Surprisingly, the contemporary movements were appropriate for, even respectful of, the antique score.

``A Spell,'' a humorous but tender trio to four songs by John Wilson, featured the burly Morris, attired in toga and tiny wings.

The splashy ``Lucky Charms'' followed, set to Jacques Ibert's ``Divertissement.'' The piece featured the entire company, bedazzling in shiny sequins, seamlessly joining elements of the Broadway musical, vaudeville and the Busby Berkeley chorus line with unusual movements like a stilted army shuffle and dancers perched atop the upstretched legs of others on the ground.

The evening concluded with ``Grand Duo,'' set to Lou Harrison's dark ``Grand Duo for Violin and Piano.'' ILLUSTRATION: DANCE REVIEW

Mark Morris Dance Group, Wednesday at the Harrison Opera House

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