TV DANCE REVIEW : Bad-Boy Choreographer Morris Profiled on Bravo

Seattle’s bad-boy choreographer Mark Morris has grown into an astonishingly creative and mature artist at the tender age of 34, as witness the invaluable hourlong profile on Morris today at 5 and 10 p.m. on the Bravo pay-cable channel’s “South Bank Show.”

Produced and fluidly directed by Nigel Wattis, the documentary focuses on rehearsals and performances of Morris’ two-hour masterpiece, “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato” (to Handel’s score), created shortly after his company became the resident troupe at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels.

(That three-year appointment ends in August. In 1992, Morris plans to establish residency with two production companies in Massachusetts.)

Intercut with the dancing are interviews with Morris, some company members and Gerard Mortier, director of the Monnaie Theatre. Mortier hired Morris after precipitating the departure of the wildly popular Maurice Bejart, who had dominated dance in Belgium with his large-scale theatrical works. Bejart’s departure set off a storm of national criticism that often targeted the dance-as-movement style favored by Morris.

About 20 minutes into the documentary, one also recognizes a newly shorn Mikhail Baryshnikov among the dancers, rehearsing what will become Morris’ film noir ballet, “Wonderland” (music by Schoenberg).

“It’s an incredible challenge to kind of keep up with him, with his brain,” says Baryshnikov during a break. He means it.

On his own, Morris proves articulate, appealing, insightful, witty, flamboyant, self-deprecating. Yet what also comes through is his strong sense of being in charge. “I’m the boss,” he says. Elsewhere, he talks easily about the need for being oneself.

Ultimately, what seizes attention is his choreography for Handel’s setting of contrasting odes by Milton and a poem by Charles Jennens in praise of moderation.

Sometimes amazingly literal, although unpredictable in presenting images that directly match the text, often pulsing with an inspired sense of matching the energy, intricate phrasing and overlapping lines as well as the moods and emotions of the music, the work ends with images of unity and harmony that make the heart soar.

For many of us, this will be the only opportunity for a while to get a sense of this rich, deeply rewarding work, fragmented as the presentation is. Don’t miss it.