Mark Morris and his 15-member dance group return to the Wexner Center for the Arts to perform the U.S. premiere of Morris’ “I Don’t Want to Love” in two different programs Friday and Saturday night.Morris, recipient of the 1996-97 Wexner Center Residency Award in performing arts, spent two weeks at the Wexner Center in June creating “I Don’t Want to Love.””The piece was made here and Morris agreed to come back and have the U.S. premiere at the Wexner,” said Chuck Helm, director of the performing arts at the Wexner.Each year, the Wexner Center Residency Award program gives awards in three primary areas: performing, media and visual arts. Recipients are invited to work in residence at the Wexner Center with the opportunity to interact with the students, faculty and staff of Ohio State.”The Residency Award is about giving the artist what they want. Mark needed a studio and the undivided attention of everyone in his company,” Helm said.Set to the music of Claudio Monteverdi, the title “I Don’t Want to Love,” comes from one of the seven Monteverdi madrigals Morris selected for the score, said Darnell Lautt, a spokesperson for the Wexner Center.”Monteverdi was at the end of the baroque period. The music is very refined and intricate, using rapid counterpoint. It has a lot of detail,” Helm said.”Mark finds baroque music complex and is drawn to its complexity,” said Susan Hadley, assistant professor of dance who was also Morris’ rehearsal director in 1990 and 1993.Helm said Morris goes against the current performing trends by Morris’ commitment to only performing to live music.The Artek Singers and the ensemble 458 Strings will perform the madrigals for “I Don’t Want to Love,” Lautt said.The pure white costumes for “I Don’t Want to Love,” were created by fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi and are very simple, Helm said.”They’re like white tunics. They reveal the dance, not conceal it,” Helm said.Morris, originally from Seattle, formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980 and since then has created 90 works for the group. From 1988 to 1991, Morris was the director of dance at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national opera house of Belgium. During his time there, Morris founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov.”Mark is a foremost dance artist of the time. He is a very musical choreographer. He has the score in his hand and he reads the score and then looks at the dancers. He makes music visible,” Helm said.Friday’s performance includes: “Lucky Charms;” “One Charming Night,” one of the two dances Morris performs in where he plays a vampire in the duet; “I Don’t Want to Love;” and “Grand Duo.”Saturday’s performance includes: “I Don’t Want to Love;” “The Office,” which was created in Ohio; “A Spell,” the other piece Morris performs in; and “Rhymes with Silver.”Before Friday’s performance, Joan Acocella, dance critic for the Wall Street Journal and author of a biography of Morris, will introduce Morris’ work and career in a lecture. The lecture is free to ticket holders and begins at 7 pm in the Film/Video Theater at the Wexner Center.The Mark Morris Dance Group performs at the Wexner Center’s Mershon Auditorium Friday and Saturday at 8 pm. Tickets cost $32, $26 and $20 for the general public and $24, $19.50 and $15 for Wexner Center members. Ticket prices for both programs are $56 for the general public and $42 for Wexner Center members.Tickets and Wexner Center membership information are available at the Wexner Center Information Services/Ticket Office at 292-3535. Tickets are also available through TicketMaster at 431-3600 or at any TicketMaster location.