She moves in mysterious ways

The dark-eyed American beauty - The Times article on Morleigh

The Times article on Morleigh - Ireland: Morleigh Steinberg - She has her feet firmly on the ground but Morleigh Steinberg moves in mysterious ways, says Daire O'Brien - June 22, 2003 - Morleigh Steinberg, wife of U2 guitarist Dave -The Edge- Evans, is sipping strained tea on a sofa in the Shelbourne hotel. Not, it must be said, the act one associates with a rock chick. In fact, physically, and in conversation she is the antithesis of a stereotypical rock star's wife. According to a recent tabloid description, she is a 'dark-eyed American beauty'. While it's not inaccurate, she certainly also exudes a certain wispiness and soft-spoken fragility. She gives the impression of a woman who must be surrounded by beautiful things. This is a woman whose poetic heart must never be exposed to the evil that men do. Her conversational tropes tend towards the ethereal - she talks, in a way difficult to imagine Kerry Katona or Karla Elliott doing, of 'the three dimensions of dance, blending music, movement and light.' She is unaffectedly affable, however, and her lack of rock-star trappings, it becomes apparent, is no artifice. A talented and successful dancer since childhood, Steinberg came from a privileged background but was a successful grafter in her own right, running her own dance school in California before she took over belly-dancing duties on the outdoor leg of U2's Zoo TV tour in the early 1990s. When romance blossomed with Edge, who had separated from his first wife, Steinberg shut up shop and moved to Ireland, where she has, as a choreographer and designer, helped the modern dance scene raise its game. Currently she's working with Liz and Jenny Roche's company, Rex Levitates, lighting its new production, Bread & Circus, which opens at the Project on Tuesday. It is the respected company's latest attempt to drag the hitherto unwilling middle orders along for a night of men in tights. As artistic milieus go, modern dance tends towards the stratospherically obscure end of the spectrum, a forbiddingly abstract domain that prompts much bewildered scratching of heads among non-specialists. Steinberg's supplied biography is, in this vein, scrupulously abstract, talking of her ability to explore how light 'captures movement, dictates emotion and sculpts space'. It's a role, she adds in person, that involves 'using more abstraction and emotion' than 'just shining a light on someone's face, as in the theatre'. The obscurity of modern dance, which can seem wilful, means that shows, rare in themselves, and getting rarer since the Arts Council took a hatchet to the funding of some dance companies earlier this year, tend to attract only the zealots. There are exceptions - Irish Modern Dance Theatre's production The Last Supper, an impeccably choreographed, raucous bunfight held in the Trocadero restaurant last October - but they're few. Generally dance is for the committed few and the nonplussed salary men accompanying their wives and partners on the off-chance that it may be the type of dancing to which Michael McDowell recently objected. Steinberg points out that the problem for dance in Ireland is that the audience just doesn't seem to cross over. 'In Italy, for instance, you have a theatre audience, an opera audience and a dance audience, and they follow everything to become one audience. It would be nice if that could happen here. 'Dance is an emotional experience and it can be a life-changing experience. What does it mean? Well what does it make you feel like?' Steinberg grew up in 1980s' Los Angeles, the daughter of a wealthy movie lawyer and successful interior designer. 'I grew up dancing and have danced all my life, but my experience was in the creative and interpretative dance,' she says. 'Of course, like every other child I wanted to be a ballerina, but my dance training was very personal, and while it had the discipline of the Martha Graham school it stressed relationships to objects and to poems.' She and Edge have two children, aged three and five, and have just moved into a house in Killiney, which was bought last year but completely renovated. 'It's a huge relief,' she says. 'We were renting for four years.' They also have homes in France and California; what about the joys of rural Ireland? She laughs. 'No. I really must get to know more of Ireland, but it takes so long to go so close.' She is fascinated by the changes in Irish society she has witnessed since she moved here nine years ago. 'I feel lucky to have come here when I did and seen the changes. People now seem much more open and willing to deal with both their political and personal history.' On an everyday level, Steinberg says she feels much more comfortable with Dublin today as a result of its growing ethnic diversity.
'Remember, I grew up in LA, which is a very gritty city. In ways it's like a third-world city, with different international peoples. When I was here first, I was asking, 'Where's the Chinese quarter? Where's the Indian quarter?' It took me a long time to get used to that.'
The couple married last year and she describes her husband's lifestyle as 'very tightly knit. It's all about close friends. But I don't mind, I can walk anywhere and go into different worlds.' While it is obvious she doesn't want to talk about her husband -'There's no real need to discuss him, is there?' - one gets the impression this is as much to do with her wish to help Rex Levitates as it is from celebrity paranoia. Now that her children are older, Steinberg tries to take on more projects. As well as more dance, she is also keen to direct more movies and has, she says, a number of scripts that she is looking at. 'I love working in film. There's a lot of great talent out there and a lot of great writers. I believe that the gift of the Irish is their written and spoken word and their sense of humour.' She believes that Irish people also have a far better understanding of international affairs than her countryfolk. She is political, she says, in so far as 'things do move me emotionally,' but when it comes to specifics is deliberately ambiguous. Was she pro or anti-war? 'That's difficult.' Next week's performances are the culmination of a long involvement 'at the conceptual stage' with Rex Levitates. 'It's really nice to be taken in at an early stage,' she says. She obviously stands in admiration of how Rex Levitates ' founded in early 1999 by Liz and Jenny Roche - has managed to gain credibility at dance's leading edge from such an unpromising geographical location. The company has won a host of awards and international invitations for its pieces, The Salt Cycle, Trip Down and Their Thoughts are Thinking Them. Steinberg met Liz Roche when she lit the RHA fringe gallery exhibition in 2001. 'She saw that piece and told me she was struck by the directness of it. I wasn't trained as a lighting designer but after years of performing I started lighting just for fun. 'I guess I knew the genre and I am quite a visual person, so it wasn't difficult to translate.' As her mobile phone rings, she excuses herself and answers it. She tells the caller to phone her at home later before realising that she does not yet know her phone number. 'Not to worry,' I say. 'I'm sure it's in the phone book.' An indulgent smile issues from the dark-eyed American beauty, and then she is gone.

'I've never laughed so hard since I moved to Dublin'

MORLEIGH STEINBERG

'I've never laughed so hard since I moved to Dublin'
The Californian wife of U2's The Edge on life in Ireland. Morleigh Steinberg has never been happier since leaving the US, she tells Jenny Friel in an exclusive interview
Frances Winston reports

MORLEIGH Steinberg may have married one of Dublin's most famous guitarists, but she will never call Anna Livia her home. It's nine years since the dark-eyed American beauty moved to Ireland to live with her partner, U2 guitarist The Edge. And although she has great affection for the Irish capital, the professional dancer and choreographer in her still finds it hard being so far away from her native Los Angeles. "The thing that really struck me when I first came to live here was how provincial the city was. It was just so Irish and everyone I met here was Irish. I had come from such a multicultural city and country," she told Dublin Daily. "After being here a few months I was so homesick that I used to go into the Asian Market in town just to remind myself that there were other cultures out there." "In other cities, like New York and London, you've got areas like Chinatown or Little Vietnam, but here, no matter where you go, you're always so aware you're in Dublin. "But things have changed a lot since I first got here, there's a lot more cultural diversity and the lifestyle is a lot more fast paced, although I don't think that's so beneficial." Morleigh and The Edge, whose real name is Dave Evans, were married last year in Eze in the South of France. Guests at the ceremony included The Edge's band mates, Bono, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton. Other well-known faces were the American actor Dennis Hopper, and the musicians Dave Stewart and Lenny Kravitz. But Morleigh is well used to being surrounded by stars of all kinds and has never been fazed by her partner's impressive set of friends. She said: "I grew up in Hollywood and went to school in Beverly Hills High. I used to see people like Paul Newman riding his bike around my neighbourhood. "I was used to being around wealth and people who are in the public eye a lot, so it's never really been something that I was ever intimidated by." The couple first met when Morleigh worked as a choreographer on U2's Joshua Tour, but it was some time before they started dating. "Bono asked me to help out with movement coaching on their next tour, Zoo TV. The belly dancer bit on Mysterious Ways actually started out as a bit of a joke," Morleigh recalled. "There had been one in the video, so the guys thought it would be nice to do it live, so they hired a belly dancer. I was there to give advice and train but the girl they had dancing didn't really have a whole lot of tour experience. "Bono asked me if I'd like to take over. I'd never belly danced before but I just said to him: 'About time you asked me.' I'm a performer so I'd been dying to dance. It's very tough when you love dancing, to watch from the wings. "I was with the tour for about two years and it was great fun, but at times I was quite lonely. "Nothing happened between myself and my partner until the very end and I didn't really know what was going to come of it. We had enjoyed each other's company but I was aware that once the tour was over I was going back to my real life. "As it turned out, we discovered we missed each other when we were apart, so that was it, but it took me a long time to actually move to Ireland." Settling in to Dublin was easier than it might have been for Morleigh. "I was lucky. I jumped into this big established group of friends and they gave me a really warm welcome," she said. "Irish people are incredibly friendly but only up to a certain point and they are quite cliquey. Anyone who's not from here will tell you that. It could be kind of lonely at times but I settled in fine" the American said. "Things like the weather here don't bother me at all. In fact, I really like the greyness and the stormy conditions. Besides it never stays too miserable for long and I think the winters here can be really beautiful." However, Morleigh admits that it was not just the climate she got used to. "I love the way Irish people talk. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard since I moved to Dublin," she said. "The Irish have a really funny, endearing and insightful way of speaking. It's definitely one of my favourite things about being here: the humour." Morleigh and The Edge have two children, daughter Sian, 5, and their son, Levi, who is 3. Although the family is living near town while their house in plush Dalkey is being renovated, Morleigh is eager that her children know their roots. "The kids are being brought up here but they know they're from LA as well. Because of their dad's job I'm the consistent person in their lives." "It's funny, I never imagined that I would ever end up living in Dublin.There's not one molecule of Irishness in me. But I fell in love and here I am."

Geishas during VERTIGO tour in Japan

(Morleigh is in front of the stage)

U2's final Vertigo show in Japan on Monday (December 4, 2006) focused on paying respect to the country and its people. Early in the show, Bono expressed the band's genuine love for the country, noting they had a wonderful stay in Tokyo. Bono spoke of his visit to Kyoto, where he toured the Church of Light, designed by Tadao Ando.Bono was so charmed by Kyoto that he brought back three of its residents to Tokyo with him for the final show. During "Mysterious Ways," Bono invited the three to dance with him on stage. Mouths dropped open when they saw Bono's guests were geishas (perhaps actually maikos [geishas in training]) in full traditional wardrobe and makeup. Morleigh Steinberg ran alongside the women in the pit, directing them to dance with their fans, to the delight of the audience and Bono, who grinned from ear to ear. At the song's conclusion, he bowed to them sweetly.

1st VERTIGO show - San Diego

Some fans report Morleigh was working, too! Opening night means that the crew are still getting accustomed to the technology and how it plays to a full audience. There was a lot of scrambling going on at the desks at certain points of the night. One thing was for sure - during Love and Peace or Else, both Steve Lillywhite and Gavin Friday were jamming away! Both Gavin and Edge's wife, Morleigh, had notebooks and were jotting down notes during the show - San Diego (THE FIRST VERTIGO SHOW)- march 28, 2005 -

Height of Sky

'Height of Sky' is a documentary about the extraordinary vision and commitment of one man's quest to rediscover his dance in the California deserts. Having never seen the desert before, Japanese born, renowned Butoh dancer, Oguri, embarked on a two year dance investigation of his relationship to this new environment and his own identity as a Japanese dancer in America.

"Only now, after over a decade of working with Oguri on various projects, from performing together, lighting many of his live productions, to directing him in numerous films, do I finally feel with HEIGHT OF SKY that I am beginning to articulate and illuminate his incredible approach to his artistry. In 2000 Oguri received a grant to research his dance in the deserts of California. For the next 3 years I documented that journey, following him into Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave and Colorado deserts. I witnessed the challenges he faced working in this hostile and adversarial environment. The alluring beauty of the desert might have been enough of a reason for wanting to work in such a landscape, but for Oguri, it went beyond an aesthetic decision. The desert connected deep within his psyche and he wanted to know why. It was only after we began writing the narration for the film did the answers become clear and his reasons were more complex and personal than he had imagined. The dances in the film were not made for the camera. They were going to happen regardless of anyone watching or not, camera or no camera. Nothing was preset, or talked about before hand. Oguri would usually spend days alone in the desert before filming would begin. At times I felt like I was shooting some rare and elusive animal that I’d be lucky to catch sight of. Mostly, Oguri danced to the ambient sounds and silent rhythms of the desert. It wasn’t until he had heard the emotive and spirited music of violinist and composer, Laiko Felix, did he bring music into the desert. In this landscape that has been so scarred and abandoned by human endeavor, Oguri’s dance and Laiko’s music reinstate, if only momentarily, the innate relationship of man to nature, and what they leave behind is seen in the enduring testimony of HEIGHT OF SKY." by Morleigh Steinberg





DANCE IN FILM PROGRAMME - Siamsa Tire Theatre, Tralee - 22nd October 2004 - Kerry Film Festival in association with Siamsa Tíre presents Height of Sky - Morleigh Steinberg 2004 / 75mins / DVD / B+W and Colour.

Too Close for Conversation

Too Close for Conversation (2002) 12min.
Filmed in edited in Los Angeles, Too Close received its premiere at the Manchester Film Festival in 2002. A single entity floats weightless in womblike darkness. Tension builds, pulling flesh apart, dividing, until two bodies emerge. A Man and a Woman. What follows is their struggle to coexist. Dancing their world into existence, their movement conversation reflects their relationship, a longing to communicate, their closeness and their separateness. In the end, it takes a leap of faith to find each other again. Filmmaker: Morleigh Steinberg. Original music: Henry LeRoy Finch; Costumes: Roxanne Steinberg; Dancers: Mark DeChiazza and Kristen Hollinsworth.





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AMERICA: A TRIBUTE TO HEROES

AMERICA: A TRIBUTE TO HEROES - release december 4, 2001 - U2 performs "Peace on Earth / Walk On" live on September 21, 2001 from London England. This album is compiled from performances done on September 21, 2001 done for a television tribute. All proceeds from this album were for the September 11 Telethon Fund. The compilation was a collaborative effort between various labels including Universal, Sony, BMG, EMI and Warner Brothers. A DVD of the performances was also released at the same time as the audio CDs. U2's performance was captured live in London very late in the evening. It featured U2 with various guests including David Stewart, Natalie Imbruglia, and Morleigh Steinberg, contributing to the song. This performance of the song garnered U2 a Grammy nomination for "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or a Group" at the 2003 awards.



Former Eurythmic Dave Stewart, Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia and Morleigh Steinberg joined U2 in a London studio on Friday to take part in the 'Tribute to Heroes' telethon.
The event, which attracted 90million viewers, aired across the US is reported to have raised some $200m for families of the estimated 6,000 victims of the September 11th attacks.
‘This is a prayer for our fallen brothers and sister,’ said Bruce Springsteen opening the telecast with My City in Ruins.
A spokesman for the show said that the response was so great that more than 300,000 donors called in the first 15 minutes alone, while U2, Springsteen and Stevie Wonder performed.
U2, playing in a studio in London, opened with a verse of Peace on Earth which ran into a moving performance of Walk On - Dave Stewart joining them on guitar and Natalie Imbruglia among the backing singers.
Actors Tom Hanks and George Clooney told stories about people lost in the attacks. ‘We are not healers,' said Hanks. 'We are not protectors of this great nation. We are merely artists, entertainers, here to raise spirits and, we hope, a great deal of money.’
The halting words of Muhammad Ali provided the evenings most powerful moment for many. Standing alongside actor Will Smith, the Parkinson's disease-afflicted former heavyweight champ said he has been a peace-loving Muslim for 20 years.
‘I wouldn't be here representing Islam if it was really like the terrorists make it look,’ he said. ‘I think that all people should know the truth, and come to recognize the truth. Because Islam is peace. Against killing, murder. And the terrorists, the people doing it in the name of Islam, are wrong.’
All proceeds go to the Sept. 11th Fund, created by the United Way of New York City and the New York Community Trust.

Stir

Stir (2000) 17min.
Filmed in the south of France, Stir received its world premiere at the Electric Lodge in Los Angeles in 2000. A woman revisits her long abandoned villa, and is transported back through emotions once lived. Following a vision of herself, she wanders from floor to floor. In each room, an aspect of her psyche, a memory, a dream, is revealed. When she finally reaches the attic, she catches her reflection in a mirror, and must confront the image staring back at her. Original music: Jon Gibson; Costumes: Roxanne Steinberg; Filmmaker: Morleigh Steinberg; Dancers: Kristen Hollinsworth.






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Mofo - Phunk Phorce Mix

"POPMart" tour - august 9, 1997 - U2 plays Helsinki, Finland, a day after Edge's 36th birthday. To celebrate the occasion, Edge's girlfriend, Morleigh Steinberg, reprises her Zoo TV role when she bellydances on-stage during "Mysterious Ways." She is noticeably pregnant. Some images will appear on "Mofo" (Phunk Phorce Mix) video.

Staring At The Sun

U2: "Staring At The Sun (Miami Version)" - April 1997
Director: Morleigh Steinberg
The Best Of 1990-2000

One Night Only

IMDB reports that Michael Jackson 'One Night Only' - 1995 - TV - has as choreographer, Morleigh Steinberg. Some rehearsals happened and some pics were taken, here, but NO Morleigh. Fact is, this programe was cancelled by HBO.

The media during that time:
"... On Dec. 6, the celebrated mime Marcel Marceau was inside New York City's Beacon Theater preparing for his appearance on HBO's Dec. 9 special Michael Jackson: One Night Only, when the King of Pop suddenly went flat. ''He was so full of energy, in absolutely wonderful condition,'' said Marceau, who turned away for a moment ''and heard silence. Everything stopped. I looked and he was on the floor.'' After he was rushed to Manhattan's Beth Israel North Hospital, Jackson's family doctors said he was suffering from a viral infection, irregular heartbeat, and acute dehydration. But that might not have been all that was ailing him. Read whole article, here

A video-promo:

Numb

"Numb" video - Director: Kevin Godley - Producer: Iain Brown - Location: Berlin - June, 23 1993. White foot is Morleigh Steinberg´s one. She, also belly-dances in front of Edge.

ZOO TV Mysterious Ways

ZOOTV tour - august 7, 1992 - Hershey - Pennsylvania - Hershey Stadium. Belly-dancer Christina Petro is no longer with the tour - she is replaced by Morleigh Steinberg, which continues with U2 until the end of the tour.

Morleigh speaking - ZOOTV Broadcast

It´s long video, it´s ZOOTV Broadcast. This part of the show reserves a grand surprise, after to dance 'Mysterious Ways' Morleigh, at backstage, speaks about her performance. She´s so beautiful, happy, with a good sense of humor as Edge and with a gorgeous voice as her Edge. Watch Morleigh speaking around 7:11 minutes of this video:

Wild Orchd

Wild Orchid - Morleigh is credited with being the choreographer on Wild Orchd (1990), the steamy Zalman King. She must have been involved with the masquerade ball Brazilian line dance scene. Wild Orchid is the title of an erotic film starring Mickey Rourke, Carré Otis, Jacqueline Bisset, Bruce Greenwood, and Assumpta Serna. It was directed by Zalman King, from the screenplay by King and Patricia Louisiana Knopp.

Earth Girls Are Easy

Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
Choreographer: Morleigh Steinberg

THEY DANCE ALONE

In 1988, ISO choreographed and performed the Music Television Video for Sting's They Dance Alone, a protest to the political problems in the Republic of Chile, which has been seen throughout the world. In the same year, ISO also organized a dance benefit at the Joyce Theatre in New York to raise funds for Amnesty International. This video is called 'The Dance Alone' version cueca solo ("cueca" is the national dance of Chile), and Sting sings with Daniel.

Lyrics for: They Dance Alone - Why are these women here dancing on their own? / Why is there this sadness in their eyes? / Why are the soldiers here / Their faces fixed like stone? / I can't see what it is they despise / They're dancing with the missing / They're dancing with the dead / They dance with the invisible ones / Their anguish is unsaid / They're dancing with their fathers / They're dancing with their sons / They're dancing with their husbands / They dance alone / They dance alone / It's the only form of protest they're allowed / I've seen their silent faces they scream so loud / If they were to speak these words they'd go missing too / Another woman on the torture table what else can they do / They're dancing with the missing / They're dancing with the dead / They dance with the invisible ones / Their anguish is unsaid / They're dancing with their fathers / They're dancing with their sons / They're dancing with their husbands / They dance alone / They dance alone / One day we'll dance on their graves / One day we'll sing our freedom / One day we'll laugh in our joy / And we'll dance / One day we'll dance on their graves / One day we'll sing our freedom / One day we'll laugh in our joy / And we'll dance / Ellas danzan con los desaparecidos / Danzan con los muertos / Danzan con amores invisibles / Con silenciosa angustia / Danzan con sus padres / Con sus hijos / Con sus esposos / Ellas danzan solas / Danzan solas / Hey Mr. Pinochet / You've sown a bitter crop / It's foreign money that supports you / One day the money's going to stop / No wages for your torturer / No budget for your gun / Can you think of your own mother / Dancin' with her invisible son / They're dancing with the missing / They're dancing with the dead / They dance with the invisible ones / Their anguish is unsaid / They're dancing with their fathers / They're dancing with their sons / They're dancing with their husbands / They dance alone / They dance alone

Sting wrote this after he saw a brief news story about women dancing in the streets of Chile torn apart by the Pinochet regime. The women were dancing in the streets with pictures of their husbands, fathers, brothers or sons pinned to their clothes or they were holding the pictures and dancing with them. Branford Marsalis played the sax. This was released as a single along with a Spanish version of the song, "Ellas Danzan Solas."

This song has the crude and sad sounds of the hard 70's and 80's in South America, it's the sounds of Andes Mountains. At the final a taste of Brazil's samba.

WITH OR WITHOUT YOU - U2

U2
Director: Meiert Avis / Matt Mahurin -
Location: Dublin / Los Angeles
Date: February 1987
Song-Info: With Or Without You.
Choreographer: Morleigh Steinberg

Morleigh Steinberg has been directing films since 1994. Her directorial debut, the award winning short, “Traveling Light", was presented by Francis Ford Coppola, for the VH-1 music-film series. Since then, it has been her passion to capture dance on film. Morleigh was chosen to participate in the UCLA Dance/Media Fellowship Project, where she shot and directed, “XING” and “Naizou”, featuring renowned Butoh dancer, Oguri. Her other films include “Stir” and “Too Close for Conversation”, with New York choreographer Nina Winthrop. Morleigh completed her first feature length documentary “Height of Sky” which documents the extraordinary two year journey of Oguri as he sets out to investigate his identity and his dance in the hostile serenity of the deserts of California. Known for her work as a dancer, choreographer and lighting designer, Morleigh co-founded ISO Dance in 1986, along with Jamey Hampton, Ashley Roland, and Daniel Ezralow, and was a formative member of Momix. She toured the world extensively with both companies and with her solo work. She won an Emmy award for best screen choreography in “Episodes”, a PBS presentation of ISO repertory. Working as a choreographer and performer in numerous music videos and feature films served as a natural progression in her move to directing film. Morleigh is a native of Los Angeles now residing in Dublin, Ireland.
ISO - Formed in 1986 by Daniel Ezralow, Jamey Hampton, Ashley Roland, and Morleigh Steinberg, the principals dancer/choreographers of Momix, ISO's projects are as varied as its style: from music videos to feature films, dance theatre to fashion shows. The choreography of ISO is created by the collaborative efforts of all four members. As members of Momix from 1983 - 1987, they worked in collaboration with Issey Miyake to direct fashion-dance spectacles in Tokyo, Paris, New York City, Fashion-Aid in London and Music Television Videos for The Lover Speaks, John Fogerty, U2, and Simply Red. In 1986, ISO Dance Theatre was born and began creating new shows and touring throughout the world. An early ISO project was a collaboration on the choreography for David Bowie's Glass Spider World Tour after which ISO went on to choreograph and perform in the film Earth Girls Are Easy. In 1988, ISO choreographed and performed the Music Television Video for Sting's They Dance Alone, a protest to the political problems in the Republic of Chile, which has been seen throughout the world.
In the same year, ISO also organized a dance benefit at the Joyce Theatre in New York to raise funds for Amnesty International. In the spring of 1988, ISO joined forces with The Bobs to produce the show ISO and The Bobs.