On Saturday, February 22, 2025, the 60th Anniversary and celebration of the prolific artist, Twyla Tharp, as Dancemaker, could not have been more inspiring. In the present environment and challenges to the arts, Thor Steingraber, Executive and Artistic Director and the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts gifted our community with a stunning one hour and 50-minute tour de force of music and dance. The courage, creativity and support was an inspiration to those who love the arts.
The first of two pieces was Beethoven’s Diabelli variations, 33 in number. It is considered one of the great and most difficult works of piano repertoire. Based on a simple waltz written by Anton Diabelli, it often vies for the top position with Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
Alfred Brendel, the great pianist known for his interpretation of Beethoven, Mozart, and Liszt, among others, wrote, “The theme has ceased to reign over its unruly offspring…. Instead of being confirmed, adorned and glorified, it is improved, parodied, ridiculed, disclaimed, transfigured, mourned, stamped out and finally uplifted”.
Twyla Tharp Dance – Photo by Mark Seliger.
Having followed Tharp and her company since the mid-sixties, it is clear the stalwart, courageous and plucky choreographer, and her band of brilliant dancers, Renan Cerdeiro, Angela Falk, Miriam Gittens, Zachary Gonder, Oliver Greene-Cramer, Kyle Halford, Daisy Jacobson, Marzia Memoli, Nicole Ashley Morris, Alexander Peters, Molly Rumble, Reed Tankersley, have set free ideas and movement throughout Beethoven’s Diabelli. It is clear they live up to the challenge, unintimidated by Beethoven’s genius and reputation.
The arms, the epaulement (positions of shoulder, back and head), was elongated, exquisite and artful! With the technique of each and every dancer, they were given the freedom to reflect their own uniqueness with true engagement that veered and fluctuated from mimicry. The design of the piece exacted the base and treble of the variations. Each dancer came and went like apparitions and sorcerers, leaving traces of memories that indwelled in our minds and resonated through our collective bodies. Tharp’s Diabelli echoed inside, and left memories of greatness, that made one hope to live long enough to see this kind of artful work again.
The audience was moved by the multiplicity of styles, body forms, and personalities that drove the phrasing and articulation of the movements. The elongation and lyricism stretched to its limits at the end of each powerful phrase. It made their motion feel infinite, making every change a revelation.
Twyla Tharp Dance – Photo by Mark Seliger.
The outstanding celebrated Pianist, Vladimir Rumyantsev, first prize winner of Moscow’s Glinka competition at the tender age of seven, went on to win awards, including the International Piano Competition in Moscow (President’s award), the Alfred Schnittke International Piano Competition, the Ricard Viñes International Piano Competition, and more, bears witness to his mastery. Rumyantsev has taken to play this tour de force, never failing to grace each note, each arpeggio or chord, gifting those present with the gift of transcendency in all its faces.
As for Tharp’s unrestrained creativity and intelligence, she built a structure in each variation that insisted on a surprising resolve and attack. Tharp used the “voice” of the treble and base clef to express the counter balance between legato and staccato movement. She used parallel lines, circles and angles. Themes and variations were executed veering off into chaos, but all began to make sense when it resolved in the extensions of arms and legs, reaching, in unison as if in prayer. With staging, they expressed the languorous and stunning musicality with the power and bravura that translated the internal notes of each variation.
The Solos, duets, trios and quartets, changed at break-neck speed. Floorwork was a reason to fly into mid-air. Tangos, mazurka’s, Hip Hop, Waacking, Modern, Ballet, and Waltzing; swayed, waved, bent, lurched, leaned, inclined like some hyper-active wind storm. It insisted that we keep up, and join in.
Because of the combination of Tharp’s learned disciplines in dance, her creative voice and the dancer’s contributions, we got the drift of all these and more disciplines that undergirded the message of genius.
Twyla Tharp – Photo by Greg Gorman.
Her Second piece, Slacktide, done in 2025, with Phillip Glass’ music “Aguas de Amazonia” with his use of Percussion instruments; Marimba (glass and red oak planks), Sun drum (tunable tongue drum), Djembe, PVC pipes, Desk bells and Almglocken (tuned Swiss cowbells), took the audience to another place. This was not lost on the dance portion which found counter rhythms, and legato movements combined with percussive surprises. Not to be upstaged by her earlier work of the Diabelli, it found its way to its flower-like designs, jumping, running and pulsing…to finally be defined in a center spot ending with a clap and a blackout.
This evening of transcendence lifted the spirit and the heart. It allowed the joy of dance and music to help strengthen our resolve to support this kind of work, so important to fortify our journey into the future. Thank you again, Twyla Tharp, the amazing dancers, Vladimir Rumyantsev, Thor Steingraber, Executive and Artistic Director and the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, all the designers and supporters for reminding us that there is such strength and courage in the arts.
Dancers: Renan Cerdeiro (Miami City Ballet…), Angela Falk (Ballet de Lorraine/France, Limón, Merce Cunningham), Miriam Gittens (Ballet BC, Gibney Co), Zachary y Gonder (Tanowitz Dance, Zvi Dance, Mark Morris), Oliver Greene-Cramer (Lubovitch Co, Ballet Austin, LA Dance Project), Kyle Halford (Tharp Co, Mark Morris, Skyla Schreter), Daisy Jacobson (L.A. Dance Project, Vail Dance), Marzia Memoli (Bejart Co. Graham Co, Tharp Co), Nicole Ashley Morris (NOW Dance Project, Sudeikis Dance, Broadway), Alexander Peters (Balanchine Foundation, Philadelphia Ballet, Kansas City Ballet), Molly Rumble (Butler Ballet, City Ballet of SD, Ballet surreal, Prague Festival Ballet, English National), and Reed Tankersley (Tharp Ballet, Cirque du Soleil/Volta).
Tour Credits: Artistic Associate | Alexander Brady; Production Supervisor and Stage Manager | Tony Crawford; Wardrobe Supervisor | Jeffrey Shirbroun; Lighting Supervisors | Jesse Campbell and Stacey Boggs; Company Manager | Jesse Ontiveros; Third Coast Percussion Production Manager | Colin Campbell; Tour Booking and Management | Opus 3 Artists; Robert Berretta, managing director; Benjamin Maimin, chief operating officer; and Jemma Lehner, associate manager.
For more information about Twyla Tharp, please visit her website.
To learn more about The Soraya, please visit their website.
Written by Joanne DiVito for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Twyla Tharp Dance – Photo by Mark Seliger. Ed.note: No photographs were allowed to be taken at the performance. The ones included here are simply PR photographs.
