Twyla Tharp at the Joyce (with Cornejo, Ulbricht and Trenary)

[abatt]

(New York, New York—January 18, 2024) -- The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) welcomes the return of one of the century's most iconic and acclaimed artists, the trailblazing Twyla Tharp. Presenting a program of two world premieres and one classic work, her sensational company of dancers, Twyla Tharp Dance, will play The Joyce Theater from February 13-25. Tickets, ranging in price from $12-$82 (including fees), can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.

With her signature wit, technical precision, and joyful ease, Twyla Tharp continues to expand her artistic range in her seventh decade of dance as her eponymous company returns to the legendary Joyce Theater. The boundary-breaking dancemaker will put her celebrated creative vision on full display with a pair of world premieres. The remarkable artists of her company, Twyla Tharp Dance, will also take on a classic work from the choreographer's extensive repertoire, once again proving that the artistry of this world-renowned master of movement knows no bounds. The world premieres include Brel, a solo set to music by Jacques Brel and performed on alternating performances by Herman Cornejo and Daniel Ulbricht, and The Ballet Master, set to music by Simeon ten Holt and Vivaldi and performed by Miriam Gittens, Daisy Jacobson, John Selya, Reed Tankersley, Jake Tribus, Cassandra Trenary, and Daniel Ulbricht. The new works will be complimented by Ocean's Motion (1975), set to music by Chuck Berry and performed by Miriam Gittens, Daisy Jacobson, Skye Mattox, Reed Tankersley, and Jake Tribus.

Visit the Joyce website for information regarding the dates that Cornejo is performing the Brel solo. 

 

[vipa]

I just saw the Twyla Tharp show at the Joyce. Anyone else see it?  Tharp always has fine dancers, even though at this point she uses pick up companies, and today was no exception. The dancers were wonderful individually and collectively.  The first piece from 1975, was Ocean's Motions, to Chuck  Berry songs. I found it to be an enjoyable but undistinguished romp. Well put together, of course, but not particularly inventive in any way. There was a sameness through-out that made me think the piece could have ended after any song. 

Next a new solo, Brel (music by Jacques Brel). Shows alternate between Cornejo and Ulbricht. I saw Ulbricht and he was great. He was tremendously musical, and easily moved from drama to humor and back, in a piece that mixes virtuoso ballet steps with the Twyla-isms of sudden bursts of turned-in footwork, looses joints, swinging arms and casual theatricality.

I thoroughly enjoyed the final piece, The Ballet Master.  John Selya was the ballet master/Don Quixote. Ulbricht his assistant/Sancho Panza, Cassandra Trenary inspiration/Dulcinea, along with other dancer/characters. Don Q searching for his impossible dream. The dancers looked great in the  showy choreography. The piece was funny and worked really well theatrically. I was reminded of what a wonderful dancer  Cassandra Trenary is. She combines clarity with a full and fluid movement quality. She looks so fabulous in Tharp's choreography, that it makes me wonder what she'll do post ABT.

A fun afternoon!

[Drew]

9 minutes ago, vipa said:

I just saw the Twyla Tharp show at the Joyce. Anyone else see it?  Tharp always has fine dancers, even though at this point she uses pick up companies, and today was no exception. The dancers were wonderful individually and collectively.  The first piece from 1975, was Ocean's Motions, to Chuck  Berry songs. I found it to be an enjoyable but undistinguished romp. Well put together, of course, but not particularly inventive in any way. There was a sameness through-out that made me think the piece could have ended after any song. 

Next a new solo, Brel (music by Jacques Brel). Shows alternate between Cornejo and Ulbricht. I saw Ulbricht and he was great. He was tremendously musical, and easily moved from drama to humor and back, in a piece that mixes virtuoso ballet steps with the Twyla-isms of sudden bursts of turned-in footwork, looses joints, swinging arms and casual theatricality.

I thoroughly enjoyed the final piece, The Ballet Master.  John Selya was the ballet master/Don Quixote. Ulbricht his assistant/Sancho Panza, Cassandra Trenary inspiration/Dulcinea, along with other dancer/characters. Don Q searching for his impossible dream. The dancers looked great in the  showy choreography. The piece was funny and worked really well theatrically. I was reminded of what a wonderful dancer  Cassandra Trenary is. She combines clarity with a full and fluid movement quality. She looks so fabulous in Tharp's choreography, that it makes me wonder what she'll do post ABT.

A fun afternoon!

This sounds very fun. The first time I saw Trenary in a featured role (one of the solos in the shades scene of Bayadere) she showed the fluid movement quality you mention.

[abatt]

I saw the program.  For me the highlight was Brel.  I saw the performance that featured Cornejo.  I hope this work can be seen by more people , or that Tharp will loan it out to either ABT or NYCB.  It is worth multiple viewings and has great depth.  

The other two works on the program were enjoyable, but not masterworks in the Tharp canon.  

[dirac]

Thank you for posting your reports on the program. Sorry to miss this, even if it's not top-of-the-line Tharp.

[dirac]

Leigh Witchel reviews the show for dancelog.nyc.

Quote

It’s marvelous that Ulbricht got to sink his teeth into Brel. He never gets something this juicy at New York City Ballet; his physique, which isn’t long, slots him as the sidekick, the supporting character. If the work traded on jukebox clichés, he still couldn’t ask for a more flattering solo.

 

[Royal Blue]

There were three works in Twyla Tharp's program at the Joyce this past February: Ocean's Motion, from 1975, and two new pieces—Brel, and The Ballet Master. Every major point expressed in the posts above about this program is valid. Ocean's Motion was interesting since it evoked the atmosphere of a relatively recent period in American history that increasingly appears distant in time. And, as danced by either Herman Cornejo or Daniel Ulbricht, Brel was superb.

The Ballet Master, however, had a notable impact and made a sweeping difference for me. Although John Selya, Ulbricht, Cassandra Trenary, and the other dancers in the cast were excellent in their respective roles, strangely enough, it was not on the surface a particularly beautiful work. Nevertheless, it led to essential reflection and greater insight about what makes Don Quixote such a priceless classical ballet.

While this show was presented at the Joyce, one of the programs offered by New York City Ballet consisted of Rotunda, Concerto for Two Pianos, and Odesa. Given a choice, I would opt for the latter every time, since I find greater overt beauty in Concerto for Two Pianos and Odesa. Undoubtedly, however, it was consequential to view The Ballet Master at this time.

Alexei Ratmansky's Solitude is a ballet that leads to earnest contemplation of the art form and its purpose. Odesa is a splendid work, which I am eager and willing to view many times. Paradoxical as it may seem, nonetheless, Don Quixote—not Odesa—provides the searing contrast for proper consideration of the issues about life and art that Solitude raises.

[Royal Blue]

Not to discount in the least the fine contributions of the other dancers who appeared in The Ballet Master, since all four were significant in the juxtaposition between ballet and contemporary dance expressed in Twyla Tharp's work. However, the mind naturally focuses on the central parts enacted by John Selya (the ballet master/Don Quixote), Daniel Ulbricht (his assistant/Sancho Panza), and Cassandra Trenary (a dancer who personifies some ideal/Kitri/Dulcinea).

There were four sections in the work, as defined by the two musical compositions of The Ballet Master. The music of the first was an avant-garde piece titled BI BA BO by the Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt. During its most melodious moments, a veiled Trenary—a figure of inspiration to the ballet master and through his work to the audience—traverses left to right the space upstage by means of a bourrée en couru and later performs turns on pointe while retaining the same position. Vivaldi's concerto Per la Sollenità di S. Lorenzo, RV 562 in D major accounted for the other sections. During the initial allegro, the choreography for Trenary's part resembles that of Kitri, and she sparkled in it. A mannered pas de deux danced by her and Selya (in the guise of Don Quixote) followed as the slow and solemn brief middle segment of the concerto played. Throughout The Ballet Master, the part of Trenary required costume changes. During the allegro of the finale, she is wearing tight knee-length shorts and looks like a female athlete practicing her routine. In other words, by the end of the work, she is completely deglamorized. Interestingly, however, the final image the audience views is a beautiful one of Trenary in a supported arabesque with her arm appealingly extended toward the ballet master.

Tharp's The Ballet Master led me to contemplate how the idealization of life, people, things, and even one's self is essential for the proper functioning of both the individual and society. Without such idealization, neither civilization nor art would be possible. Paradoxically, without art, civilization and all the idealization of the world underpinning them, the sort of heightened consciousness of Reality brilliantly metaphorized through the tale of The Sleeping Beauty and its Awakening Scene would be unachievable.

Moreover, it led to reflection about how unwise as well as profoundly unethical it is not to be at the same time always mindful of the humanity of any person we idealize. It is unreasonable, certainly, to expect any individual to define their existence and lead their life solely within the confines of a fanciful conception others have of them. Nevertheless, the impact of those who entertain and inspire others by putting themselves out there to the public is bound to figure prominently in their conception of the self.

In an unexpected and a roundabout way, Tharp's work made one further appreciate why the novel by Cervantes is considered a great masterpiece of literature, and why Petipa's Don Quixote—despite its feebleness as a precise adaptation—is nonetheless pivotal for ballet. Additionally, it piqued my curiosity about New York City Ballet's version in the 1960s and 1970s, with Suzanne Farrell and Balanchine as the leads. There are so many ballets that exceed it in sheer beauty, and yet Tharp's The Ballet Master made an outsized impression and caught one deliciously unaware.