美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Everybody's Other Than Everybody Else': Choreographer Mark Morris

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

When Mark Morris was a 6-year-old in Seattle, he'd stuff his feet into Tupperware juice cups so he could walk en pointe. I guess it worked. He grew up to be a celebrated¹ dancer, choreographer³, director and creator. He founded his own company in his 20s, then took over the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and has gone on to create and collaborate⁴ with most of the world's great dancers and companies on signature works that include "Gloria," "Dido and Aeneas," a controversial "Nutcracker" and "Falling Down Stairs" with Yo-Yo Ma.

Mark Morris has written a memoir⁵ about dance, identity and ingenuity⁶, hits, flops⁷ and goose and mescaline holiday dinners with Mikhail Baryshnikov - his memoir "Out Loud," written with Wesley Stace. Mark Morris joins us from New York. Thanks so much for being with us.

MARK MORRIS: Oh, you bet. I'm happy to be here.

SIMON: I have to say there's a chilling section in this book when you talk about gym class and, yeah, the sissy test.

MORRIS: Oh, yeah. I have to tell you a very good friend of mine, my best friend Isaac Mizrahi - I said something a long time ago which was true. I told him that, you know, if it weren't for bullies⁸, how would I know I was a sissy? But I wasn't interested in sports, and I was dancing already from a very young age. So to me, it was just kind of degrading, a little bit humiliating, not much fun. And, you know, I didn't like that kind of competition. I was an other, as people call them now. But, you know, everybody's other than everybody else.

SIMON: You put this into your dance "Jr. High," didn't you?

MORRIS: Yes, I used what was called the sissy test. You know, look at your fingernails. If you do it a certain way, you're a butch or a femme. But it turned into a little bit of a look back when I made up a dance based on the quotidian⁹ humiliations of junior high school - that age, that degree of development and that sort of confusion and annoyance¹⁰ that happens.

SIMON: Yeah. You did have, as you note in the book, just about the most horrible single year I think could be imagined.

MORRIS: Right. That must've been the fire in our house and a car accident. Not long after that, my father died. So that was a lot of horrible things.

SIMON: Yeah.

MORRIS: I imagined every airplane flying overhead would crash into me directly. You know, it's like, well, what about the other 300 people on the plane? That didn't occur to me. It was just that here I am walking down the street, and there's a plane. That's it. That's my death warrant.

SIMON: I wonder, and I say this as someone who lost his father when I was 16, did it wind up making you really want to make a mark in life?

MORRIS: Oh, let's see. So, of course, my father wanted me to go to college, and I had no intention of doing that because I was already dancing and I was already a real smarty-pants. And so, you know, he wanted me to know how to type to have something to fall back on, which everybody wishes for his child.

SIMON: Yeah.

MORRIS: So I very, very reluctantly learned how to do that. But I also learned how to cook and how to very badly sight-read playing the piano and how to read and write bad juvenile¹¹ poetry. So I was like - I was - as opposed to the other kind of juvenile poetry. I was always doing sort of what we would term creative ventures, you know?

SIMON: Yeah.

MORRIS: So I wasn't told that I was not qualified¹² for something or that I wasn't good enough to do it. It was like, you go ahead and see how it goes, and be sure to learn how to type.

SIMON: Yeah. Are you storing what amounts to a repository of dances that'll outlive you?

MORRIS: Oh, my. Yes, Dances for the Future is my answer to the big question of legacy¹³. I choreograph² all the time. I choreograph whether I have some place to debut¹⁴ a piece or not. So I'm making up dances like I always do, which is in the studio with the dancers. They're notated, filmed, recorded, designed and taught to other people through the age-old dance tradition of training younger people and teaching them the moves. And so when you leave the company, you teach your part to somebody. We re-rehearse it, but no one sees the finished piece until it's time. So I'm hoping to release one a year or so posthumously¹⁵, I imagine, for a long time.

SIMON: What's satisfying about preparing dances you'll never get to see?

MORRIS: I guess once I finish a dance and release it to the public and we're performing it, I'm kind of done.

SIMON: So the enjoyment's in the creation.

MORRIS: Yeah. Well, and I love watching it. Like, I love watching other people's work, too, if it's really good and interesting. But, you know, the most exciting part is also very often the most frustrating¹⁶ part - trying to finish something or get it just right or get across something that I'm not sure what it is until it happens.

SIMON: Mark Morris - his memoir, "Out Loud" - thanks so much for being with us.

MORRIS: Thanks a lot.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

2 choreograph   

v.设计舞蹈动作

参考例句：

• Achim had choreographed the dance in Act II himself.阿希姆自己设计了第2幕的舞蹈动作。
• She has danced,choreographed,lectured and taught all over the world.她在世界各地跳过舞、编过舞、讲过学、也教过书。

3 choreographer   

n.编舞者

参考例句：

• She is a leading professional belly dancer, choreographer, and teacher. 她既是杰出的专业肚皮舞演员，也是舞蹈设计者和老师。 来自辞典例句
• It'stands aside, my choreographer of grace, and blesses each finger and toe. 它站在一旁，我优雅的舞蹈指导，并祝福每个指尖与脚尖。 来自互联网

4 collaborate   

vi.协作，合作；协调

参考例句：

• The work gets done more quickly when we collaborate.我们一旦合作，工作做起来就更快了。
• I would ask you to collaborate with us in this work.我们愿意请你们在这项工作中和我们合作。

5 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

6 ingenuity   

n.别出心裁；善于发明创造

参考例句：

• The boy showed ingenuity in making toys.那个小男孩做玩具很有创造力。
• I admire your ingenuity and perseverance.我钦佩你的别出心裁和毅力。

7 flops   

n.失败( flop的名词复数 )v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的第三人称单数 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅

参考例句：

• a pair of flip-flops 一双人字拖鞋
• HPC environments are often measured in terms of FLoating point Operations Per Second (FLOPS) . HPC环境通常以每秒浮点运算次数(FLOPS)加以度量。 来自互联网

8 bullies   

n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负

参考例句：

• Standing up to bullies takes plenty of backbone. 勇敢地对付暴徒需有大无畏精神。
• Bullies can make your life hell. 恃强欺弱者能让你的日子像活地狱。

9 quotidian   

adj.每日的，平凡的

参考例句：

• Television has become part of our quotidian existence.电视已成为我们日常生活的一部分。
• Most solutions to the problem of global warming are tediousl,almost oppressively,quotidian.大多数应对全球变暖的措施都是冗长乏味，几近压制，以及司空见惯的。

10 annoyance   

n.恼怒，生气，烦恼

参考例句：

• Why do you always take your annoyance out on me?为什么你不高兴时总是对我出气？
• I felt annoyance at being teased.我恼恨别人取笑我。

11 juvenile   

n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的

参考例句：

• For a grown man he acted in a very juvenile manner.身为成年人，他的行为举止显得十分幼稚。
• Juvenile crime is increasing at a terrifying rate.青少年犯罪正在以惊人的速度增长。

12 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

13 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

14 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

15 posthumously   

adv.于死后，于身后；于著作者死后出版地

参考例句：

• He was confirmed posthumously as a member of the Chinese Communist Party. 他被追认为中国共产党党员。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her last book was published posthumously in 1948. 她最后的一本书在她死后于1948 年出版了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》