Mark Morris Quotes

Dance should not just divide people into audience and performers. Everyone should be a participant, whether going to classes or attending special events or rehearsals.

I go around the room and ask people, 'What do you think?'

You need the audience to go on the ride with you. You can't just isolate them.

I never try and do the same show, ever. The audience controls the dynamic of the shows. Sometimes they listen, and sometimes they ask a million questions.

I really like involvement with an audience.

Everybody knows that at a Freedia show, you're definitely going to have some crowd participation, and they're anticipating and waiting for that moment.

People really respond when given an opportunity to take part in something.

I couldn't be a one-woman show, since I wouldn't have anybody to bounce off from. Once you're out there, dribbling on, you have nobody to interrupt you. I love being part of a company, and telling a story.

In classrooms full of students who range from brilliant to sullen disaffection, it's games - and often games alone - that I've seen engage every single person in the room. For some, the right kind of play can spell the difference between becoming part of something, and the lifelong feeling that they're not meant to take part.

I'm attracted to ensembles: you get a lot of really good moving pieces. It's sort of like a horse race in a way, especially when you know that everyone is on this collision course. It's like, 'Who's going to make it?' And you can put people together in unexpected pairings.

People like to be consulted.

The best thing that I bring in my live show is that it's not scripted. It's more of a conversation with my audience. And that's what people like about the show - it's very real. There are mistakes and laughter.

I really think that in the media world that we live in now, especially for writers, it has to be a conversation. With very few exceptions, it can't be this one-way, 'Here I am on the mountaintop preaching to all of you great unwashed readers in hopes of saving you.' It doesn't work that way.

People don't understand that when you come into any theatrical experience, you've got to come locked and loaded, that you're a part of the experience, too. You can't come with your arms crossed. Be open to it.

I love working with other actors and other people - you know, stand-up - it's lonely; it's just you out there and the audience. But it's fun working with other actors. I love doing that, too.

I like the idea of bringing people together and making great entertainment.

I think the audience keeps it fresh for me. You just never know - every audience has its own personality.

The audience is already doing so much, so I don't make them work any harder.

I like trying to create a spark through a collaboration between me and the audience.

It's through engagement with the world, and not separation from it, that something with meaning gets produced.

There is a real joy to be able to get up and react to each other and appreciate the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, just the chemistry of the group.

We try to keep our audience involved. It is a show, but we want to make sure that everybody - us, them - has a good time.

I never want to tell a story where I'm lecturing to the audience.

I'm not sure plays tell people anything. I think plays include an audience in an experience that is happening in that moment, and that's the specialness. What people take away has almost as much to do with what they bring as what we do.

It's always good to get in contact, get involved with your teammates.