At the point that we realized all 24 dancers from the Mark Morris Dance Group were on stage simultaneously, we were struck by two thoughts. First: holy shit 24 dancers on stage at once in a delirious, joyous romp; and second: thank god dance companies can still exist that can put 24 dancers all on stage at once. Morris' company was celebrating the 20th anniversary of his early-career classic L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato at the Paramount Theater this past weekend. Set to a lesser-known pastoral work by Handel, the already overwhelming treat of seeing this work in person was escalated by full accompaniment from the Seattle Symphony and Chorale members directed by maestro Gerard Schwarz. more ›