When I interviewed the dancer Aaron Loux for my Times feature on the Mark Morris Dance Group’s BAM season, he reflected on what it’s like to dance for Mark Morris.  What he said has stuck with me:

“I had to unlearn a way of thinking about dance that was too complicated. I came in trying to think about everything I was doing before and even while I did it….Mark’s approach is really simple, it’s really all about action. A lot of his corrections are just ‘do this, and don’t think about it.’ It’s about learning to do really simple things like seeing someone do something and copying what they’re doing, and the way they’re doing it. I think it’s about opening yourself and quieting down the thinking part and trusting your instincts. You can usually get a better result that way, and faster.