Word: twyla
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...name Twyla-curious, fanciful, perhaps not quite grownup. Or it may be her stage image as a witchy little jazzbo with a boxer's shuffle and a baseball pitcher's kick. For nearly two decades Twyla Tharp has gone about the business of being a choreographer, methodically building a first-rate company and a large, acclaimed body of work. But her reputation, at least outside serious dance circles, has lacked weight. She handles certain material, such as social dancing, pop songs and pop-up emotions, better than anyone else, in an idiom that seems delightfully impromptu and improper...
...vaudeville flair so far has overshadowed the dramatic skill she has shown, notably in the full-length The Catherine Wheel (1981). But from now on she ought to be recognized as a major choreographer; indeed it can already be said that this is Twyla Tharp's year. Her troupe, now at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is launched on a national tour featuring three of her jazz classics (Eight Jelly Rolls, Sue's Leg, Baker's Dozen) and some provocative new pieces that break away from the American nostalgia that is her specialty. Nine Sinatra Songs...
...riff in The Bix Pieces). Her father owned drive-in movie theaters around Los Angeles, which provided Tharp with an open-air classroom in popular culture. But she also remembers the satisfaction of watching him building and repairing his property, "brick and mortar, step by step." That is how Twyla Tharp has constructed her career. Which brings us to her third great inspiration, George Balanchine. Unlike most people in the dance world, Tharp is no expert on his choreography, but she knew what she needed to learn from him. "He understood about music," she says. "He understood about dramatic...
...regained its national prestige with the last piece on the program. Twyla Tharp's "Push Comes to Shove." This ballet is a with, virtuosic, humorous dance that had its world premiere in 1976. This almost ultra modern dance takes classical ballet and turns it inside out. Twyla Tharp catches each tradition and turns it into a hilarious joke. With music by Fran, Joseph Hayden and Joseph Lamp and a confident, clever set of dancers. "Push Comes to Shove" was a smashing hit. Tuesday night Danilo Radojevic. Marianna Techerkasky and Susan Jaffe led the ballet although Cheryl Yeager and Clark Tippet...
...April underscored the present scarcity of talented choreographers, a problem that every large company must deal with. Baryshnikov tries to be philosophical. "One has lived with this a long time," he observes. "If one looks around the country, there are very few names-Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Jerry Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Eliot Feld. It must have been wonderful to be here in the '40s when Balanchine, Antony Tudor and Agnes de Mille were making ballets for A.B.T. I wish I could choreograph like Balanchine, but I can't, so I am patient and I try out new talent...