Review: The Legendary TWYLA THARP Capped Her 50th Anniversary Tour with a Six-Day Run in NYC

Twyla Tharp, the award-winning choreographer who has rightfully become a dance legend in her own time, capped her multi-city 50th Anniversary Tour with performances from November 17th to 22nd 2015 at the Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, presented by The Joyce Theater. Yet perhaps precisely because the run has been so eagerly anticipated by those of us who have followed Tharp's evolution during a stellar career that spans half a century, the double bill of premieres she created for the tour was not entirely satisfying.

For starters, her company of 12 dancers performed to taped music. That is nothing short of a sacrilege at Lincoln Center where live music should be de rigueur. As for the choreography, much of it is riddled with Tharp's own clichés such as pedestrian walking, abrupt shifts of weight, and over-the-top slapstick.

In an interview with writer Helen Shaw for a piece about the tour in TimeOut New York, Tharp says, "New and fresh is something that doesn't exist! Everything's been done before!" Then Shaw poses this question: "Do you have advice for those who want to keep creating?" Tharp answers by saying, "Every day you have a new - no wait not new! - you want to understand things differently, you want to have learned things." I find those quotes seriously disappointing. Tharp, now 74, maintains that she does intend to "keep creating". That's a welcome possibility only if she actually continues to create. The Merriam-Webster definition of that word is "to produce (something new, such as a work of art) by using your talents and imagination". 'Nuff said.

While I'm still carping, I need to point out that Santo Loquasto's costumes for the second piece on the bill, "Yowzie", are so riotously colorful that they eclipse the dancing. Costumes should enhance the choreography rather than distracting from it. Another annoyance was the fact that the playbill simply listed the names of all 12 dancers instead of letting us in on who was dancing which sections of "Yowzie". Worse yet, for "Preludes and Fugues" all we got was that the piece would be danced by "The Company". I could recognize some of my favorites, including Savannah Lowery and John Selya, and my companion for the evening pointed out a fellow Goucher dance alum, Amy Ruggiero. However, I feel strongly that crediting dancers needs to be standard practice instead of leaving the audience to figure out who's doing what.

In spite of everything, though, I did enjoy the evening. The dancing was superb. Also, clichés notwithstanding, Tharp is an exceptional choreographer who manages to meld dance styles and disciplines in a one-of-a-kind way that is always a pleasure to watch. Her choice of music is also unerringly ideal. The opener, "Preludes and Fugues", is set to Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier" Volumes 1 & 2. "Yowzie" is performed to a pastiche of American jazz music. Each of the pieces is introduced by a fanfare composed by John Zorn.

In a program note that has by now become famously viral in the dance world, Tharp wrote, "Simply put, 'Preludes and Fugues' is the world as it ought to be, 'Yowzie' as it is. The 'Fanfares' celebrate both." Robert Johnson, in a playbill article, explained that for "Preludes and Fugues", Tharp was reacting to the tragic events of 9/11 by making a dance about an ideal world in which we can all get along in spite of our differences. That message didn't come across the footlights for me, but I did pick up on the intention to show us visual harmony and personal interconnectedness.

On the other hand, if "Yowzie" represents the world as it is then drunken shenanigans apparently supersede global unrest and terrorism in Tharp's mind. That seems unforgivably trite to me. Even so, the dancing and acting were spot on and eminently entertaining.

In another vein, Tharp is at work on her fourth book and she writes a blog for The New York Times. We are lucky to have her chronicling her work as she continues to use her prodigious gifts to contribute to the dance world. May she take a deep breath at this juncture, and then go on to make something truly new for us in the years to come.

Photo of Matthew Dibble and Rika Okamoto by Ruven Afanador

To post a comment, you must register and login.