DANCE : Beyond the Bad Boy Years : Let’s get one thing straight right now: If you think Mark Morris is dance’s bad boy, you’re too old. But, read on, you might be able to detect some residual attitude.

Once hailed as the innovative “bad boy” of modern dance, Seattle choreographer Mark Morris vaulted to the international big leagues in 1988 when he and his company took over residency from Maurice Bejart and the Ballet of the 20th Century at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. He was 32.

Bitter controversy dogged him during his three-year tenure there, however. Pro-Bejart factions, used to the old dance spectacles, attacked Morris’ pure-movement approach to dance. Their anger--and Morris’ reckless public statements--boiled over into a major press war. One paper finally printed, “Mark Morris, Go Home!” in a headline.

But Morris and his beleaguered troupe stuck it out. Eventually they garnered general enthusiasm with “The Hard Nut,” Morris’ deconstruction of the “Nutcracker” ballet, made in his final year there. But the years took their toll on him and the company.

Morris never lacked supporters, though. Ballet superstar Mikhail Baryshnikov invited him to co-found his modest White Oak Dance Project in 1990, and that relationship continues. A year later, the MacArthur Foundation gave Morris a “genius” grant. Last year, the first book-length biography of him, written by New York dance critic Joan Acocella, appeared.

Since his return, he has been committed to keeping his Mark Morris Dance Group working. The New York-based troupe dances about 90 performances a year, most of which take place outside New York City. The 16-member company (including Morris) operates on a $2-million annual budget, quite a comedown from the Monnaie’s multimillions.

Taking time off from rehearsals for a work he is creating for San Francisco Ballet, Morris looked back on the years since Brussels with wry, sly and typically open directness. He and his troupe will make their only Southern California date this season on Wednesday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

*

Question: How do you feel about being known as the “bad-boy” choreographer of modern dance?

Answer: First of all, I’m only called a ‘boy’ by people that are older than I am. You have to be 38 or older to call me that, I guess. I tried to see that appellation as a certain fondness. That’s how I chose to see it. I think it means one is precocious or something or (that) one doesn’t lie too much.

*

Q: What are you doing in San Francisco?

A: I’m here starting a piece for the San Francisco Ballet--there’s no title yet--to Lou Harrison’s Piano Trio. Lou is brilliant and of a generation in which a lot of West Coast composers were seriously learning and hearing Eastern music, Asian music, which has turned into a sad state of so-called world music, a postmodern pastiche of Eastern and Western forms.

Lou predates that. He’s dealing with a direct knowledge of Eastern music. It’s very smart and beautifully produced music in general. I like to work with him. He’s a friend of mine too.

*

Q: Do you do much free-lance choreography?

A: I don’t do very many commissions for other companies. In this case, this is the second piece for San Francisco Ballet. I’m doing two commissions this year. (The other is for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens.) The rest is for my company.

My preference is to work with my company. I like to work in ballet. So those are the commissions I do for things my company doesn’t do.

But also there are a lot of people who want (my) dances. I just don’t want to give it to them. I don’t want to put my company on unemployment. I could have a fabulous career as a free-lance choreographer--and not have a company. That is the farthest thing I want. I work in opera when I can. That can become tricky.

*

Q: What is your relationship now with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project?

A: It keeps on dancing. White Oak still is happening. Frankly, for the last few months, we’ve been on the opposite schedules. I haven’t seen them much. I haven’t seen Mr. Baryshnikov much. But that happens. They’re doing some of my works. They’re traveling all over the place. Hurray for them.

*

Q: What have you been up to recently?

A: What I’ve always been doing: I make up dances that I think are what should happen, how I particularly decide to respond to music and employ people as dancers. That’s my choice, and if that’s surprising or unconventional or blah blah blah , that’s not my problem. I don’t like to see the same thing all the time.

*

Q: How do you feel about Joan Acocella’s biography?

A: I think it’s excellent. I didn’t write it. I definitely did not write it. It’s her opinions and theories and stuff. I think it’s perfectly admirable, and it’s also not a trash dance book like many are that show who slept with whom and who took cocaine. That’s not too interesting, really.

*

Q: Acocella says the company doesn’t dance much of your pre-1985 works anymore. Why is that?

A: I don’t know if that’s true. It probably is true if she observed it. Some of it is because I do work with live music a lot and I can only bring back pieces that I can have that happen. That’s the reason. Partly. Some of the dances I’m not interested in seeing anymore. There are dances since 1985 we don’t do because I don’t like them too much or their time is gone. I am basically interested in doing new dances rather than reviving chestnuts.

*

Q: How do you create?

A: I just go in there. I make up a lot of stuff, edit and change things as I go along. But once I’m finished, I’m finished. “Gloria” is one of the few (works) I simplified after I made up. That was a long time ago.

*

Q: Would you comment on the repertory you and the company will be dancing in Irvine?

A: I don’t like to talk about it. I can tell you the music and something. “Lucky Charms,” done in June, is to a piece of music by Jacques Ibert (Divertissement) that I’ve known for 20 years or more. I heard it again recently and had to make up a dance right that second. It was written for a film.

“Rondo” I just made it up in Boston in July. I’ve just done it few times. I’m still revising it as I go along. It’s a solo, so I can do that. It’s to Mozart’s Rondo in A minor, a piece I couldn’t get rid of. I had to make a dance. It’s a private dance to watch. It’s a quiet, private dance.

*

Q: Is there an untold story?

A: Maybe. I don’t know. Ask Joan. Lots of people find some sort of associations in my dances, or something is evoked that isn’t necessarily a narrative. Whether that’s what I meant or not, it doesn’t make any difference.

*

Q: Do you mind when people do that?

A: I mind when people decide it’s like that or there’s the story and (that) it’s obvious to everyone-- because it isn’t to me.

“Handel Choruses” is old. It’s four solos to very big choruses from various sources. What I wanted basically was the biggest possible musical forces with the smallest possible dance forces.

“The Office” is very new. I made that up in Columbus, Ohio, premiered it in the spring for Zivili (a folk dance troupe), for six dancers. It’s basically set in a sort of a waiting room. That’s about it. It’s in five movements and the cast diminishes until there’s just one person left. It’s a going-away dance.

*

Q: Is it about death?

A: Maybe.

*

Q: Acocella says that you’re tired of “Gloria.” That true?

A: I don’t know if that’s true. I’ve been watching it for many years. It’s a good enough dance so it can keep going. I don’t want it to be a signature (work) or whatever. People like to watch it and people like to do it, and I do too. I like the music.

*

Q: How has your work changed?

A: Again, ask Joan about that. I notice these things long after other people do. I make up the next dance. Of course, it changes all the time. To me, since I make up new dances all the time, it’s a gradual thing. If you see my work every two or five years, you probably see bigger changes than I do. I don’t know any better. I just go from dance to dance. I try to surprise myself.

I have been working actually more with American music than I normally have, and less Baroque music than I have for a while. It depends on the situation, scale. I still use a lot of vocal music.

*

Q: How stable has the company been since your return from Brussels?

A: Several people have gone to dance elsewhere or to stop dancing or to get married and have children or whatever. That’s natural. I’m all for that. I have a couple of new dancers in the company. It’s been going fine. We’re very busy, which is great for us and not so great for other people, I suppose. Basically I get to do what I do best, to make up dances and have them performed.

We travel a lot. I’m only in New York a few days every few weeks, basically. We work all the time. We have to raise funds, the way we did before (Brussels). I’m prohibited from doing giant, giant projects very frequently like I could in Brussels. That’s OK. I did that while I could.

*

Q: How do you feel about Brussels these days?

A: I don’t miss Brussels. (The Monnaie Theatre)--well, that’s spectacular and that doesn’t exist anywhere in the States and that’s too bad. But it doesn’t come free. It was quite difficult, quite stressful. Politically, Brussels itself is a difficult place. I had fabulous resources, and my company really pulled together in a beautiful way.

*

Q: What do you want now?

A: I want studios and a theater and an orchestra at my disposal at all times. That doesn’t happen much in this country.

*

Q: You prefer dancing to live music, but the company will be using taped music at the Irvine theater, won’t it?

A: Right. I can’t have live music every single second. We occasionally do repertory tours with taped music. It’s my preference to stay someplace long enough to rehearse and perform with living musicians. But that’s only my preference. I don’t get to do it all the time. It’s not a bad show just because it’s a taped show. I hope.

*

Q: Does the small size of the theater (750 seats) bother you?

A: I love that size. This thing is, American theaters are large, very big. You can see fabulous things from far away, beautiful patterns. You can get a sense of what’s going on. But I like smaller because I just do.

*

Q: Do you read your critics?

A: I read everything, every single word that’s written about me and my company. I prefer writing that is written well. I like the language, and so if you can use the language, that pleases me. What happens too often is that people review other people’s reviews instead of what they’ve seen. That’s unfortunate. I prefer raves. But life would be dull if that’s all that happened.

*

Q: What do you see as the state of dance today?

A: That’s not a fair question. I don’t know about it. I work with companies a lot. I see shows a lot. There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of interest in good work, as far as I’m concerned. Right now, it’s kind of lumpish. That’s theater dance in general. It’s complicated. It has to do with interest and funding and people getting the opportunities to do work or the best (people) to go into the field of dancing. It’s not particularly urgent right now. Consequently, there are fewer people and, consequently, fewer good works. I don’t know what to do about it.

*

Q: Is there anyone’s work you admire?

A: Merce Cunningham, and he’s been around forever.

*

Q: Do you have any plans to come to Los Angeles soon?

A: I don’t know, because I don’t do (the bookings). We go anywhere where we’re hired to, frankly. It doesn’t seem--a lot of things don’t stick in Los Angeles, which is too bad. It’s sort of a different place from others. Opera doesn’t particularly stick there. Ballet doesn’t really stick there. Darling Bella (Lewitzky) has been there for so long and valiantly standing up for dancers’ rights and concerns, and that’s brilliant. I love her.

*

Q: Anything you want to bring up?

A: My dancers are the greatest ever and, of course, none of my pieces would exist, etc. That’s usually what doesn’t get said. I say it and nobody writes it down and then the dancers say I never talk about them.

* Mark Morris Dance Group, Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. “Lucky Charms,” “Rondo,” “Handel Choruses,” others. Wednesday, 8 p.m. $28. Ticketmaster: (714) 740-2000.