Twyla Tharp Begins Her Fiftieth Anniversary Tour

Twyla Tharp begins her Fiftieth Anniversary Tour

Twyla Tharp celebrates 50 years of choreography with a year of activities. It was with great interest that I attended the first showing, April 13, 2015, at Barnard College, NYC, in a large dance studio. This performance included five of Tharp's Barnard students, as well as her company of professional dancers.

Since graduating from Barnard College in 1963, Tharp has choreographed more than one hundred sixty works: one hundred twenty-nine dances, twelve television specials, six Hollywood movies, four full-length ballets, four Broadway shows and two figure skating routines. She received one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, nineteen honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President's Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the 2008 Jerome Robbins Prize, and a 2008 Kennedy Center Honor. Her many grants include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship.

The program opened with what sounded like circus music, with dancers, wearing practice clothes, exhibiting classical ballet technique and jumping on each other with childish glee. This was not at all what I had expected, being familiar with Tharp's more pedestrian style. After this piece, Tharp spoke to the audience, telling us that this was a tribute to her circus of a childhood, in which she was the Ringleader.

Next, her Barnard students appeared to demonstrate Tharp's vocabulary, including symmetries. As they were about to begin dancing, she asked the audience to pull out their cell phones and to watch this ballet, performed years ago by her company. I did not comply at the time, preferring to watch the dancers before me. It seemed a strange request at a dance performance.

The company members then returned to dance Tharp's new octet, set to Beethoven's String Quartet opus 130, for four women and four men. Two dancers, who performed lead roles, stood out as extraordinary dancers. Matthew Dibble exudes energy from every pore, appearing comfortable, experienced, mature, and intelligent. He drew attention whether or not he was dancing solo. His partner in this ballet, Savannah Lowery, is beautiful in body and expression. Lowery's New York City Ballet background and style are a good foundation for Tharp's choreography of Beethoven, in which she shone. Beethoven is thought to be notoriously undanceable, but not in this case.

The five Barnard students returned to answer Tharp's questions, before dancing again. When asked what she had taught them, Connor answered: 1) take risks; 2) notice the obvious; 3) archive past work.

The last piece was made to remember how her childhood should have been, said Tharp. For this section, she asked for volunteers from the audience to join the dancers, both company members and Barnard students, on stage. Dancing to David Bowie's "Let's Dance", "Changes", and "Is There Life on Mars?", some dancers seemed to improvise together, using Tharp's style, mixing classical technique with a matter-of-fact attitude, while others taught simple movements to the volunteers and led them, a few steps forward and a few steps back. Dibble's magnetism was again remarkable, although the general nature of this work was underwhelming.

In September, Tharp and her twelve-member dance ensemble embark on a ten-week Fiftieth Anniversary tour that features two world premieres. The tour begins on September 18 in Dallas, and concludes November 22 at the David H. Koch Theatre in New York City, with stops in 15 major American cities in between, including Beverly Hills, Berkeley, Chicago and Washington DC.

For a schedule of future performances of this tour, visit

http://www.twylatharp.org.