Twyla Tharp's 50th Anniversary Tour Coming to Annenberg Center Live, 10/30-11/1

Broadway and television sensation Twyla Tharp brings her 50th Anniversary Tour to the city of Brotherly Love for three performances. Watch her legendary choreography ignite the stage with two new works as Dance @ Annenberg Center Live continues October 30-November 1. Tickets cost $30-$75. Tickets are available online at AnnenbergCenter.org or by phone at 215.898.3900. The Annenberg Center is located at 3680 Walnut Street.

Tharp celebrates 50 years of dance with this special engagement of new works. The performance opens with the vibrant First Fanfare followed by Preludes and Fugues, a spirited piece set to Bach, and the debut of Yowzie, a humorous work set to a raucous and jazzy score. Tharp leads a meticulously rehearsed ensemble to bring her lively choreography to life with immaculate technique and pure joy.

The company describes the performance as, "Simply put, Preludes And Fugues is the world as it ought to be, Yowzie as it is. The Fanfares celebrate both." First Fanfare is set to "Antiphonal Fanfare for the Great Hall" by John Zorn. Preludes And Fugues is dedicated to Richard Burke and set to a score by Johann Sebastian Bach. The second act kicks off with Second Fanfare set to "In Excelsis" by John Zorn. The show closes with Yowzie, set to "Viper's Drag," a compilation of jazz arranged by Henry Butler and Steven Bernstein.

The 50th Anniversary Tour company features dancers who have long histories with Tharp, appearing in her Broadway shows, Movin' Out, The Times They Are A Changin' and Come Fly Away, as well as in her various dance troupes and in the ballet and contemporary dance companies for whom she has created new works. The company includes: John Selya, Rika Okamoto, Matthew Dibble, Ron Todorowski, Daniel Baker, Amy Ruggiero, Ramona Kelley, Nicholas Coppula and Eva Trap.

Schedule of Performances
Friday, October 30 at 8 PM
Saturday, October 31 at 8 PM
Sunday, November 1 at 3 PM

About the Artists
Twyla Tharp (Choreographer, Director) Since graduating from Barnard College in 1963, Twyla Tharp has choreographed more than 160 works: 129 dances, 12 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, 19 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. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1992, Tharp published her autobiography Push Comes To Shove. She went on to write The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life, followed by The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together. She is currently working on a fourth book. Today, Tharp continues to create.

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