Twyla Tharp Dance Diamond Jubilee Featuring Third Coast Percussion at Northrop Auditorium

Twyla Tharp celebrates her 60th anniversary with a groundbreaking evening of stellar dancing and phenomenal musicianship—including the world premiere of a new work that marks her six decades as a choreographer. An innovative dance set to Philip Glass’s Aguas da Amazonia, the new work has music arranged in close collaboration with Tharp and performed live by Third Coast Percussion on a unique collection of custom-designed percussion instruments. In addition, her Diabelli Variations, set to Beethoven’s intensely demanding masterpiece, reveals its elegant humor and commands technical prowess—and energy—as performers change effortlessly from ballet, to jazz, to modern, with bits of social and street dance.

At times tender, teasing, transcendent, and cheeky, the pieces showcase Tharp’s uncanny and witty use of music to create work of startling originality and beauty. The two dances once again ensure Tharp’s place as one of the great artists of our time.