A Wooden Tree

Imagine this song by Ivor Cutler as the musical accompaniment for a group of New York’s finest morris-dancers choreographed by the greatest living creative artist in any art form. Put it together with thirteen more of his songs (including the ever popular Beautiful Cosmos), with dancers dressed as children (Ivor Cutler always seemed a child dressed as an adult) in madcap square dances, shape-shifting and pattern-weaving around the playground, and you’ve got one of the four spectacularly life-enhancing performances by the Mark Morris Dance Group last night at Sadlers Wells. All that was needed for a perfect St Andrew’s day was a curtain call with Mr Morris dressed in a kilt.

Frames of reference

Beautiful Cosmos

This is for Ivor Cutler, in performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with The Roches, in the next seat at a Dollar Brand concert at Camden Town Hall, in the same train carriage from Hampstead Heath to Gospel Oak, now sadly departed. Also for Cosmo the cat, Beautiful Cosmo. These colour photographs are 100 years old from Russia. Cosmo is 15 years old from a cat shelter in Haringey.

Frames of reference