REVIEW: Twyla Tharp looks back at her minimalist beginning
Photo: Dancers with Twyla Tharp Dance resurrect Eight Jelly Rolls, a piece from early in Tharp’s choreographic career. Photo courtesy of Ian Douglas / Provided by Richard Kornberg PR with permission.
NEW YORK — Twyla Tharp is one of the most exciting and original choreographers in American history, and she is proving that statement true with her new retrospective piece, Minimalism and Me, now playing an engagement at New York City’s Joyce Theatre. In the 90-minute program, Tharp takes the stage and narrates a story that focuses on her early days in the Big Apple’s avant-garde arts scene of the 1960s.
The audience hears Tharp tell tales of her personal motivations behind choreographing these early pieces, all of them seemingly simple and based in the artistic minimalism of the day. Then a cadre of dancers brings these routines to life, often in excerpt form, resurrecting not only the dance steps (or lack thereof) but also the sensibility of a choreographer finding her dance voice at the start of what will be an illustrious career.
These dances are minimal, indeed. One of them, Tank Dive, features one dancer standing on pointe while Petula Clark’s “Downtown” plays in the theater. There is no movement, except the minuscule flexing of the dedicated dancer, and the result is both unique, confounding, minimalist and artistically groundbreaking.
Other dances feature more performers and paired synchronized movement, but all with the goal of “less is more,” as Tharp told the crowd at a recent Joyce performance.
Perhaps most interesting in this fast-paced retrospective of Tharp’s early career are the archival images that are broadcast in the background, showing the originality of her creative process and also the enormity of it. Tharp quickly broadened her output from the makeshift dance spaces of New York City and began building choreographic movement on crowds of dancers in outdoor settings.
The second act ditches Tharp at the podium and instead presents an entire performance (finally!) of one of her most iconic early pieces: Eight Jelly Rolls, which is set to the music of jazz great Jelly Roll Morton. This is the highlight of Minimalism and Me, which continues through Sunday, Dec. 9. The first part is interesting and deconstructive, allowing a rare glimpse into the creative process, while the second part is the payoff, the pièce de résistance.
Eight Jelly Rolls is resurrected with the help of skilled dancers from Tharp’s company. They move about the stage, dressed in off white, with effortless rhythm, fusing together free-flowing movements of their arms with well-orchestrated movements of their legs. They come together and break apart, creating and destroying narratives on both an individual and collective scale. For the audience, there is much content to appreciate, all happening simultaneously and in frenetic fashion.
Perhaps the highlight of this highlight is the bookend to the piece. After a brief blackout, Tharp herself takes the stage and finishes Eight Jelly Rolls as a dancer. She runs around the stage, with great abandon, to join her colleagues in their circuitous journey set to the soundtrack of the Jazz Age. Some humor comes into play when the choreographer falls behind, but her dancers, no doubt soaking in their tutelage, support her until the thrilling end when Tharp throws a hat into the air with minimalist glee.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Twyla Tharp Dance performs Minimalism and Me through Sunday, Dec. 9 at the Joyce Theatre in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
