Twyla Tharp Dance (Photo by Mark Seliger)
The legendary Twyla Tharp comes to Dallas to open the TITAS season
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com
“It is an honor to have her open the TITAS season,” TITAS/Dance Unbound Executive Director Charles Santos said in a video announcing that T/DU will host dance legend Twyla Tharp and her company as she celebrates her 60th anniversary with a revival and two new pieces.
Twyla Tharp Dance will perform on Sept. 20 for one night only at the Winspear Opera House. The show will feature the revival of “Ocean’s Motion” from 1975 set to music by rock and roller Chuck Berry.
With dancers in vintage fashions performing classic dances like The Bunny Hop and The Twist, the revival homage to Berry’s music showcases Tharps penchant for mixing pop music and classical dance.
“She did something that no one else did so successfully, which was to bring concert dance into ballet and into the Broadway stage,” Santos said. “No one has been as successful.”
And at 81, Tharp continues to create new works.
After a popular run in New York, Tharp brings her new pieces to the Dallas audience. “Brel” celebrates the Belgian singer Jacques Brel.
With a minimalist music approach mixed with Vivaldi, the company will also perform the new work “The Ballet Master.”
“Twyla Tharp is truly one of the living legends of the modern dance world,” Santos said. “She paved the way; she broke the rules; she did a lot of things she wasn’t supposed to do, and she was a great success. She has influenced generations of dance.”
Before the show in Dallas next month, Tharp answered a few questions for Dallas Voice about process.
Dallas Voice: This particular performance had a popular run at the Joyce earlier this year. How does it feel now to present a past work with new works. Does it feel different over the course of your career from the early days to now? Twyla Tharp: Debuting new work is always the same challenge — will it communicate with others or not?
As you create, each piece speaks for itself, but could you describe how your process and style and perhaps even intentions have evolved as you create something new? Each work completes one question and asks a next.
You’ve written about cybernetics. Is that something you only practice within dance or do you apply it to other aspects of your life? Dance and life are cybernetic.
On a lighter note, do you have thoughts on the effect or impact that TikTok and social media has had on dance with videos and dance challenges? Any interest is good for the art form.
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Twyla Tharp (Photo courtesy of The Richard Avedon Foundation)
TITAS/Dance Unbound’s 2024/25 season
TITAS/Dance Unboound’s 2024/25 season will feature companies from the United States, New Zealand and Spain, with two companies making debut performances and three companies performing with live music accompaniment.
The season includes:
Sept. 20: Twyla Tharp Dance: Diamond Jubilee at the Winspear Opera House. Jubilant, often comic and precise musical choreography, this evening of dance will be an example of Tharp’s signature technical precision and wit.
Oct. 4 and 5: Noche Flamenca: Searching for Goya at Moody Performance Hall. The Spanish company returns to Dallas displaying the boundaries of the flamenco art form with a theatrical journey through Goya’s graphic imagination featuring live accompaniment.
Nov. 1 and 2: Okareka: Mana Wahine at Moody Performance Hall. This New Zealand company makes its Texas debut with a multi-media collage of captivating imagery and dance, inspired by the historic story of a young Maori heroine.
Nov. 23: Mark Morris Dance Group: The Look of Love at the Winspear Opera House. An homage to the chart-topping songs of the late Burt Bacharach, the stage will come alive with an ensemble of vocals, piano, trumpet, bass, and drums, creating an auditory experience including the voice singer, actress and Broadway star Marcy Harriell.
Dec. 13: Alonzo King Lines Ballet at the Winspear Opera House. The Ballet collaborates with composers, musicians and visual artists from around the world to create performances that alter the way we look at ballet today.
Jan. 24 and 25: Ballet Hispanico: CARMEN.maquia at the Moody Performance Hall. This company brings to Dallas the world premiere of a reimagined, evening-length Picasso-inspired contemporary take on the Bizet classic.
April 11: Whim W’him at the Winspear Opera House. The award-winning Seattle-based dance company known for its artistic quality and innovative choreography will make its Texas debut.
May 2 and 3: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo at the Moody Performance Hall. The world’s foremost all-male comic ballet company is famed for its technical skill and clever antics and celebrates more than 50 years of artistic hilarity.
May 23: Doug Varone and Dancers: To My Arms/Restore at the Winspear Opera House. This two-part work embodies Varone’s fascination with the interplay between the deeply emotional and the immensely physical with live music accompaniment.
April 26: Command Performance: TITAS/Dance Unbound Gala at the Winspear Opera House. This annual event features T/DU commissioned works created specifically for this gala performance by leading choreographers such as Twyla Tharp, Dwight Rhoden, Jessica Lang, Mia Michaels, Sonya Tayeh, Bridget L. Moore and WANG Yuanyuan.
For more information, visit TITAS.org.