Tharp!, choreographer Twyla Tharp's freshest company, invades Power Center this weekend presenting three new works. Tharp, the woman who got ballet dancer Baryshnikov dancing in tennis shoes, now brings to Ann Arbor a group of 14 diverse, young dancers to continue her tradition of defiant, energetic, modern dance. A rebel, innovator, artist, Tharp's work has been everything from minimalistic to motion picture choreography.
Tharp literally dove into her 30-year career as a modern dance choreographer with her 1965 piece, "Tank Dive," in which, wearing a white cap, fencing jacket and tights, jumped from a set of steps, spun around a subway pole and hurled her body spread eagle onto the stage. This sort of ground-breaking work has propelled Tharp's career. Her pieces span all mediums and possibilities. She has danced in silence, to Jelly Roll Morton, Frank Sinatra, Mozart and Chuck Berry.
Tharp's early works, born out of the turbulent 1960's post-modern art scene, question the boundaries of performance, male authority and the making of "pretty" dances. Tharp began choreographing just on herself and then for only a few other women. Not until 1971 did she take a male dancer into her company. She has worked with dance and film greats, from dancing in Paul Taylor's dance company to choreographing for Milos Forman's 1978 film, "Hair."
Her newest grouping of works draws musical inspiration bracing a wide range of time, beginning with "Sweet Fields," a piece set to traditional American choral music, including selections of music by the 18th century composer, William Billings. Tunes in "Sweet Fields" also draw from the Shaker and Sacred Heart traditions.
"66," also set to American music, is a wander through kitsch-filled 20th century Americana. An homage to the popular highway that has carried travelers and created adventures for decades, Tharp creates the retro theme of the piece with 1950's bachelor pad music, featuring works by Esquivel.
Completing the show, and in the spirit of a completely different musical genre, "Heroes," is a symphonic ballet composed by Philip Glass. Based on the recording of the same name by David Bowie and Brian Eno from the late 1970's, Glass strives to reintroduce the innovations and avant-garde techniques used in the original "Heroes," and combines these with his own material.
Dance critic, Clive Barnes, has described Tharp's vision as seeing "choreography as an explosion of movement, a sort of centrifugal shout of joy that goes out and covers the stage." While her three newest dances alone will easily fill the Power Center stage, Tharp's performance contribution to Ann Arbor extends further than the three performances this weekend.
As part of a week long residency here, Tharp, with the help of ballet mistress, Shelley Washington, is reconstructing her 1969 piece, "The One Hundreds," on one hundred members of the Ann Arbor and surrounding communities with participants gathered from places like Community High School, Wayne State, local dance companies, and University athletic and dance departments.
Tharp created "The One Hundreds" at a period in her choreographic career in which she explored working with a movement theme, exploring one initial phrase and constantly changing it through tactics such as reversion, inversion, resequencing, and changing dynamics.
Tharp described "The One Hundreds" as "a dance that I simply and modestly designed to represent the entire universe." One hundred people, filling a space, all working off the same 11-second phrase of movements. The movement is constructed from everyday gestures, able to be instantly picked up by any bodies with nearly no rehearsal time.
Tharp, along with the 100 Michigan participants, will present only one demonstration of the reconstruction tonight at the Power Center. The show will include footage of the original version of the piece as it was performed over 25 years ago as well as video clips from the Michigan rehearsal made earlier in the day. Recognizing the bold era in which "The One Hundreds" was conceived, Tharp is awarding a prize to the participant with the most flamboyant, most retro '60s / '70s costume.