Northrop Presents
Twyla Tharp Dance
Diamond Jubilee
Featuring Third Coast Percussion
Sun, Jan 26, 3:00 pm
Twyla Tharp celebrates her 60th anniversary with a groundbreaking evening of stellar dancing and phenomenal musicianship—including the world premiere of a new work that marks her six decades as a choreographer. An innovative dance set to Philip Glass’s Aguas da Amazonia, the new work has music arranged in close collaboration with Tharp and performed live by Third Coast Percussion on a unique collection of custom-designed percussion instruments. In addition, her Diabelli Variations, set to Beethoven’s intensely demanding masterpiece, reveals its elegant humor and commands technical prowess—and energy—as performers change effortlessly from ballet, to jazz, to modern, with bits of social and street dance.
At times tender, teasing, transcendent, and cheeky, the pieces showcase Tharp’s uncanny and witty use of music to create work of startling originality and beauty. The dances once again ensure Tharp’s place as one of the great artists of our time.
You might enjoy this performance if you loved:
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Pilobolus, Martha Graham Dance Company, Dancing Beethoven by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens.
Twyla Tharp appeared at Northrop with Mikhail Baryshnikov on Dec 18, 1992. This will be the seventh appearance of Twyla Tharp’s company at Northrop and the first since Mar 2003. American Ballet Theatre and Joffrey Ballet have performed her work on our stage.
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*Some exclusions apply.
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Articles and More
Related Links
Learn More - Explore These Themes
The content below derives from the Northrop Across Campus Program that supports Northrop's mission towards intersections between performing arts and education for the benefit of all participants now and for generations to come.
Find ways to make thematic connections to these suggested topics:
Dance: Modern, Ballet, Contemporary, Composition
Music: Classical, Percussion, Composition
Theater Production
Creative Process
Take a deeper dive with these resources that provide additional information about the performers, the history of the artform, and the artistic process.
Links:
PBS News Hour: “Why Twyla Tharp wants us to 'shut up' and do what we love”
PBS: American Masters, “Twyla Moves”
The New York Times: “You Dig Down, You Settle in, You Don’t Stop” article Find in UofM Library
Third Coast Percussion Website
Twyla Tharp + Third Coast Percussion Águas da Amazônia
Third Coast Percussion: NPR Tiny Desk video
Third Coast Percussion plays Philip Glass’s Paru River video
Beethoven's music: John Suchet explores the Diabelli Variations
Start a conversation about the performance or encourage reflection, using these questions as inspiration.
In The New York Times article “Twyla Tharp: You Dig Down, You Settle in, You Don’t Stop,” legendary dance critic Gia Kourlas shares that Tharp, in her almost 60 years of making dance, “has displayed breathtaking range, from experimental masterpieces (The Fugue from 1970 exists in a class by itself) to Broadway hits. All of the work has this: exquisite technique matched with effortless ease.”
- How has Tharp’s career shaped the perception of ballet and modern dance in American culture and beyond?
- How can artists cultivate versatility in their field?
- How do artists nurture a lifelong creative practice?
Twyla Tharp will debut her 60th anniversary Diamond Jubilee season at Northrop, kicking off a coast-to-coast dance tour set to live music by Third Coast Percussion, featuring works by Philip Glass and Beethoven.
- How do you imagine cross-disciplinary collaborations might deepen an artist’s creative practice?
- How might working across genres inspire new work?
Third Coast Percussion (TCP), a Grammy Award-winning, Chicago-based percussion quartet, was last at Northrop in April 2022 with Metamorphosis, featuring choreography by Movement Art Is. In their reimagining of Philip Glass’s classic Águas Da Amazônia, TCP will accompany dancers on a unique collection of custom-designed percussion instruments.
- What is the relationship between percussion and dance? Can you describe any cultural practices where percussion and dance are one and the same?
- How could reimagining an existing piece bring new meaning and context to the work?
