The look of "Pepperland" — Elizabeth Kurtman's mod costumes are as bright as neon, with vividly clashing colors and patterns — is not so surprising, nor is Morris' playful choreography. That's the popular side of Morris, such as in his hit "The Hard Nut." But every single move in the dance is, while being utterly musical, entirely unexpected. What first seems wrong always feels right, as though, to confirm John Lennon's lyric, "Nothing real, but nothing to get hung about."
Pepperland is a Mark Morris Dance Group production in association with American Dance Festival, Durham, North Carolina; BAM, Brooklyn, New York; Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity with the Sony Centre, Toronto, Canada; Cal Performances, UC Berkeley, California; Celebrity Series of Boston, Massachusetts; The City of Liverpool, England, U.K.; Dance Consortium UK; Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; International Festival of Arts & Ideas, New Haven, Connecticut; The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; La Jolla Music Society, La Jolla, California; Meyer Sound, Berkeley, California; Seattle Theatre Group, Seattle, Washington; Segerstrom Center for The Arts, Costa Mesa, California; UCSB Arts & Lectures, Santa Barbara, California; and White Bird, Portland, Oregon.
Music commissioned by the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation.
Original music by The Beatles. All Rights Reserved. Used under license from Sony ATV Music Publishing.