In this section called “The Ladies Dance” in choreographer Mark Morris’s signature work L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato, 12 women dance to an air for soprano representing a character “L’Allegro,” a joyful person. The music is by Handel, with a libretto based on the poetry of John Milton.
“He arranges 12 women in a braided wreath and has them dance in and out among one another. The wreath winds and turns, twists and untwists — this is the ‘wanton heed,’ the ‘giddy cunning’ — but always with the simple, rational circle (the ‘hidden soul of harmony’) at its center.” — Joan Acocella, describing this section of the dance in her biography, Mark Morris.
