{"id":10005,"date":"2021-11-18T22:48:52","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T22:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=10005"},"modified":"2022-02-10T23:20:42","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T23:20:42","slug":"review-twyla-tharp-looks-back-with-an-eye-on-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/review-twyla-tharp-looks-back-with-an-eye-on-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Twyla Tharp Looks Back, With an Eye on the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

The starry program \u201cTwyla Now,\u201d at New York City Center, ends with a dazzling premiere featuring dancers who could be the stars of tomorrow.<\/em><\/p>\n

From The New York Times (Critic’s Pick)<\/a><\/p>\n

By Siobhan Burke<\/p>\n

A few minutes into \u201cAll In,\u201d a new ballet by Twyla Tharp that had its premiere at City Center on Wednesday, a surprise scurried in from the wings. Up to that point, the evening had been a showcase for stars: current and former members of New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and American Ballet Theater. But here, like a corps de ballet, were six lesser-known dancers, ages 14 to 21, who could be stars of the future. In black shorts, white T-shirts and ballet slippers, they looked like students dressed for class. If they had a name, it might be \u201cTwyla: The Next Generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 80, Tharp is looking back, unearthing and refurbishing gems from her catalog of more than 160 works. And she is clearly looking forward, too, planting the seeds for her choreography to live on, or at least suggesting, through the imagery of that young ensemble \u2014 who at times during \u201cAll In\u201d literally follow in the footsteps of the luminaries onstage \u2014 that it will.<\/p>\n

The dazzling \u201cAll In,\u201d for a cast of 14 dancers, concludes the New York City Center program \u201cTwyla Now,\u201d which begins with a series of more intimate works: three very different duets that reach back into the past and later resurface, as familiar fragments, in the finale. The evening\u2019s duo-centric structure affords a close look at partnerships as a kind of choreographic foundation.<\/p>\n

In some ways, it\u2019s a back-to-basics concept on the stage where, nearly half a century ago, Tharp leapt to new levels of recognition with her trailblazing \u201cDeuce Coupe,\u201d widely heralded as the first \u201ccrossover ballet\u201d \u2014 combining elements of ballet, modern dance and social dances of the 1960s. The most captivating of the duets on Wednesday were the newest and oldest: \u201cSecond Duet,\u201d a premiere constructed from Tharp\u2019s 1991 improvisations with the dancer Kevin O\u2019Day; and \u201cPergolesi,\u201d which she made for herself and Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1992.<\/p>\n

At a time when young ballet choreographers, perhaps more than ever, are scrutinizing and rejecting the gender conventions of classical partnering, these works remind us that Tharp has been at it for a while, toppling any notions that men should lift and women should be lifted. In \u201cSecond Duet,\u201d danced with tender recklessness by Jacquelin Harris and James Gilmer of the Ailey company, each partner aggressively resists and surrenders to the other. Thomas Larcher\u2019s \u201cMumien,\u201d a foreboding composition for piano and cello (played live, like much of the program\u2019s music, by members of the Knights<\/a>) pulls the tension between them tighter.<\/p>\n

Read the full review.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The starry program \u201cTwyla Now,\u201d at New York City Center, ends with a dazzling premiere featuring dancers who could be the stars of tomorrow. From The New York Times (Critic’s Pick) By Siobhan Burke A few minutes into \u201cAll In,\u201d a new ballet by Twyla Tharp that had its premiere at City Center on Wednesday, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7126,3712,3612,5936,7125],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10005"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10012,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10005\/revisions\/10012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/3653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}