Word: tharpe
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Byrne has directed a film (True Stories), written music for dance (Twyla Tharp's The Catherine Wheel), won an Oscar for a movie sound track (Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor) and appeared on the cover of TIME. After the breakup of Talking Heads in 1988, he immersed himself in the sensuality of tropical salsa, releasing two solo albums that hitched his quirky vision to the locomotion of the mambo...
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...
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...
This season's emotional center, however, was the latest alliance of Baryshnikov and Jerome Robbins. Set to Bach cello music, A Suite of Dances is $ also a solo, a moody exploration of man and movement, much of it autumnal in tone. Though less frequent than the partnership with Tharp, Baryshnikov's relationship with Robbins is deepening. A Suite is the choreographer's first new dance in five years. "For a while, I didn't feel in condition; I couldn't feel my body," says Robbins, 75, who looked spry and acute in rehearsal. "But Misha wanted to try something...