”Swan Lake” may be the biggest and flashiest of American Ballet Theatre`s offerings this season, but it`s by no means the whole show. A burning curiosity (and, for many dance fans, the question mark of the hour)
focuses on the company`s most sensational new member: choreographer Twyla Tharp, who joined as full-time artistic associate in September.
Tharp`s dissolution of her independent company last spring has its woeful side-it was one of the finest dance ensembles in the world, and, naturally, it existed only to show off Tharp`s works. But the coming ABT engagement could easily attest to the move`s many plus points. Tharp, who contributed some of ABT`s finest repertory pieces in recent years, is now inside the institution, and her flair, liveliness and sense of style are bound to be visible within the troupe`s dancing ranks.
More importantly, her increasing interest in blending ballet and modern dance has an ideal playground in the technique-rich ranks of ABT. Nine of her excellent dancers have been added to the company with her, along with ABT stalwart Gil Boggs, who took a leave of absence to dance with Tharp and returned with the rest. One curiosity about the coming engagement revolves around how Tharp`s standard pieces will look when her old company members are mixed onstage with ABT regulars.
Already, the Tharp presence is a boost to the company`s repertory programming. The engagement includes the world premiere of Tharp`s ”The Bum`s Rush,” a piece for eight dancers described by one observer as a ”wild, free- for-all cartoon,” with talking and laughing as well as dancing, set to music by jazz and ragtime pianist/composer Dick Hyman. (The piece, dedicated to veteran Tharp dancers Shelley Washington and Richard Colton, premieres Feb. 9 and will be performed again on an all-Tharp program the evening of Feb. 18.) Tharp`s affinity for minimalism is well-celebrated in her 1986 masterpiece ”In the Upper Room,” to the score by Philip Glass. (Chicago will get its first look at ABT`s version Feb. 9 and 18.) For ”Quartet,” another new work, for two men and two women, Tharp turns to composer Terry Riley, often cited as the founder of the minimalist movement with his 1964 ”In C.” ”Quartet,” scheduled Feb. 18 for its Chicago premiere, and only performance this engagement, is set to Riley`s ”G Song.”
”The Fugue,” Tharp`s minimalist masterstroke of another sort, featuring three male dancers, no music, miked feet and the ugly, naked back wall of a bared stage, will be revived (in its first ABT installment) to complete the Feb. 18 program. (The company`s familiar Act II corps de ballet spectacular from the 19th-Century full-length ”La Bayadere” completes the Feb. 9 line-up.)
Other repertory works new to Chicago include the critically acclaimed
”Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes,” a piece by hot young choreographer Mark Morris, and ”Rigaudon,” to Benjamin Britten`s ”Simple Symphony for Strings,” the fourth ballet for ABT by principal dancer Clark Tippet.
The engagement, part of an ABT national tour sponsored by Philip Morris Companies, also features revivals of ”Gaite Parisienne,” last season`s hit revival of the Leonide Massine/Jacques Offenbach ballet, with costumes by French couturier Christian Lacroix; ”Prodigal Son,” George Balanchine`s rendering of the parable, with music by Sergei Prokofiev; and Sir Kenneth MacMillan`s 1985 full-length version of ”Romeo and Juliet,” again with a Prokofiev score.
New principal dancers include Andris Liepa of the Bolshoi Ballet, who has joined ABT for the 1988-89 season, and Guillaume Graffin, formerly of the Paris Opera Ballet.
Here is a complete schedule, subject, as always in dance, to last-minute changes:
8 p.m. Feb. 7: ”La Bayadere (Act II),” (choreography by Marius Petipa, music by Ludwig Minkus), danced by Cynthia Harvey, Andris Liepa; ”Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes,” (Mark Morris, Virgil Thomson), the company; ”Gaite Parisienne,” (Leonide Massine, Jacques Offenbach), Susan Jaffe, Victor Barbee and Johan Renvall.
8 p.m. Feb. 8: ”Rigaudon” (Clark Tippet, Benjamin Britten), the company; ”Prodigal Son,” (George Balanchine, Sergei Prokofiev), Jaffe, Danilo Radojevic; ”Gaite Parisienne,” Cheryl Yeager, Guillaume Graffin, Renvall.
8 p.m. Feb. 9: ”La Bayadere,” Marianna Tcherkassky, Radojevic; ”The Bum`s Rush,” (Twyla Tharp, Dick Hyman), Sandra Brown, Elaine Kudo, Ashley Tuttle, Shelley Washington, Jamie Bishton, Gil Boggs, Kevin O`Day, Daniel Sanchez; ”In the Upper Room,” company.
7 p.m. Feb. 10: ”Swan Lake,” (Lev Ivanov, Marius Petipa and Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Tchaikovsky), Jaffe, Leipa.
2 p.m. Feb. 11: ”Swan Lake,” Christine Dunham, Ross Stretton.
8 p.m. Feb. 11: ”Swan Lake,” Leslie Browne, Ricardo Bustamante.
2 p.m. Feb. 12: ”Swan Lake,” Jaffe, Leipa.
8 p.m. Feb. 12: ”Swan Lake,” Amanda McKerrow, Wes Chapman.
8 p.m. Feb. 14: ”Swan Lake,” Harvey, Geremy Collins.
8 p.m. Feb. 15: ”Swan Lake,” Cynthia Gregory, Stretton.
8 p.m. Feb. 16: ”Romeo and Juliet,” (Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Prokofiev), Alessandra Ferri, Bustamante.
2 p.m. Feb. 17: ”Romeo and Juliet,” McKerrow, Chapman.
8 p.m. Feb. 17: ”Romeo and Juliet,” Tcherkassky, Stretton.
2 p.m. Feb. 18: ”Prodigal Son,” Renvall, Gregory; ”Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes,” company; ”Gaite Parisienne,” Yeager, Graffin, Robert Wallace.
8 p.m. Feb. 18: ”The Bum`s Rush,” Brown, Kudo, Tuttle, Washington, Bishton, Boggs, O`Day and Sanchez; ”Quartet,” Gregory, Harvey, Graffin and Bustamante; ”The Fugue,” O`Day, Bishton, Sanchez; ”In the Upper Room,”
company.
