Word: tharpe
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Starting with Push Comes to Shove, you could call Twyla Tharp Baryshnikov's inspired biographer. Push saw him as an immigrant dancer in a new and daunting company (A.B.T.) and country, determined to assert himself, join the fun, court the girls and still deal with the fact that he is irremediably different, set apart by culture and genius. By the time The Little Ballet came along in 1983, Misha was A.B.T.'s director, and that dance was a hilarious, poignant picture of a harried boss trying to cope with a fractious company. It was the dance equivalent...
...1970s and '80s, and probably for a long time to come. In those years the notion of this paradigm of nobility mixing it up with modern dance seemed absurd. But a closer look at the record reveals he was already seeking out alliances with modern choreographers. When Twyla Tharp created Push Comes to Shove for him in 1976, she revealed a whole new Misha: rueful, droll, an outsider trying to get in -- and just as eagerly bursting...
Pergolesi began two years ago as a duet Tharp danced with Baryshnikov. Back then, it commented on the relationship between choreographer and dancer, who in this case are an exceptional match in both musicality and wit. Tharp's funny bone is never predictable; Baryshnikov can make any move look spontaneous, as if he were out there amusing himself. The piece is now recast as a solo, though for a few phrases Misha dances ardently with an invisible partner -- Twyla's way of reminding people that this is still her show. For the rest, Baryshnikov seems to be musing...
Even more painful is Joachim Schlomer's Behind White Lilies, a trendy bit of Euro-junk full of pretentious claptrap involving obscure religious rituals. As for Kevin O'Day's Quartet, there are Tharpian moments -- O'Day danced with Tharp for several years -- but also a lot of bustle and humor that is his own. He looks like a good investment for the company...
...James L. Brooks has endured his harshest professional challenge. Last August, after three years of work, he had the first test screening of I'll Do Anything, his Hollywood father-daughter story with musical numbers written by Prince, Carole King and Sinead O'Connor and with choreography by Twyla Tharp. It's tough enough under the best of circumstances for the fretful filmmaker to let go of his babies and present them to audiences. But this time Brooks saw his anxiety justified. Audience response was calamitous: 100 people walked out, and opinion cards showed they hated the songs...