The Twyla Zone

Three stellar dance companies bring Twyla Tharp's vision to Berkeley this fall.

Next year, Robert Cole will retire after more than two decades as director of Cal Performances at UC Berkeley. But before he does, the man who took the once-regional performing-arts venue and turned it into an international stop for the world’s top artists has scored a final coup: luring the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and Edward Villella’s Miami City Ballet to Berkeley this fall to present works by iconic choreographer Twyla Tharp.

In October, the Joffrey will perform Tharp’s “Deuce Coupe,” her breakthrough piece from 1973. The dance juxtaposes a lone ballerina center stage proceeding through a litany of elegant ballet steps as if in a classroom, while around her swirls a large group intimating the loosey-goosey popular dances of the era. Not only did “Deuce Coupe” begin Tharp’s signature “crossover” style, combining ballet with freestyle modern movement; it went a step further and broke one of classical dance’s strictest taboos by using popular music—in this case, songs by the Beach Boys.

“Twyla was the first to pair serious choreography with pop music,” says Cole. To this day, the move remains controversial in dance circles. The choreographer Mark Morris, for instance, with whom Cole has developed a close working relationship, strongly eschews contemporary pop, calling it “boring.”

“I’m Mark’s biggest supporter, and I completely respect his views on music, but they are opposite of Twyla’s,” says Cole. “Don’t get them in the same room together!” (There’s no danger of that, since Morris’ own visit to Berkeley will have taken place weeks earlier—September 20 through 23—to premiere his “Mozart Dances” on the West Coast.)

Later in October, Miami City Ballet presents “Nine Sinatra Songs”(music courtesy of Ol’ Blue Eyes, obviously), which melds ballroom-dance style with Tharp’s sensibility—by turns athletically sharp and so effortlessly lyrical that it evokes rag dolls—and “In the Upper Room,” an intricately patterned and pulsating crowd-pleaser set to music by Philip Glass.

Finally, in November,American Ballet Theatre will perform “Baker’s Dozen,” a serenely flowing piece for 12 set to the smooth jazz piano of Willie “The Lion” Smith, and 1983’s “Sinatra Suite,” a more compact Sinatra duet made popular by the preternaturally gifted Mikhail Baryshnikov, who danced in its premiere. The dance is  a comment on male-female relationships, its ballroom vernacular and classic songs belying the deeper emotions it conveys—new lust in “Strangers in the Night,” for instance, or subtle aggression in “That’s Life.” For all that she’s mined the Billboard charts, Tharp is foremost a choreographer who knows how to pack a finely honed artistic punch within an accessible and entertaining package.

“Twyla has a style all her own,” says Cole. “It’s uniquely American. Of all the great living choreographers in the world, she’s at the top. And she just happens to be an American woman.”

Joffrey Ballet at Zellerbach Hall, Oct. 4-6.
Miami City Ballet at Zellerbach Hall, Oct. 26-28.
American Ballet Theatre at Zellerbach Hall, Nov. 7-11.

NEXT STEPS
Erica Shuch Performance Project at Intersection for the Arts, Sept. 13-29.
ODC/Dance Unplugged, Sept. 17; odcdance.org
Bill T. Jones' "Chapel/Chapter" at the YBCA, Oct. 18-21.
Alonzo King's Lines Ballet, Nov. 2-11; linesballet.org
Faustin Linyekula's "Festival of Lies" at the YBCA, Nov. 8-10.

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