Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer whose work blends ballet, modern dance, and popular music across stage and film.
Deuce Coupe: A 1973 ballet by Twyla Tharp set to music by the Beach Boys. This early work brought ballet and popular music together, with dancers performing in sneakers.
Classical ballet: A codified theatrical dance tradition built around turned-out positions, pointe work, and formal technique. Tharp borrows ballet's precision while placing it beside less formal movement.
American Ballet Theatre: A major American ballet company founded in 1939 and based in New York City. Tharp studied ballet with the company, grounding her later experiments in classical technique.
Ballet Theater: The New York ballet company renamed American Ballet Theatre in 1956. Tharp's work for this company helped bring her choreography into a prominent ballet institution.
Mikhail Baryshnikov: A Soviet-born American ballet dancer and actor celebrated for his classical technique and stage career. He performed in Tharp's Push Comes to Shove, a landmark collaboration between ballet star and choreographer.
Push Comes to Shove: A 1976 Twyla Tharp ballet blending classical ballet, modern dance, and vaudeville elements. Its comic style and ballet vocabulary exemplify Tharp's hybrid choreography.
Modern dance: A theatrical dance tradition that developed partly in opposition to classical ballet's conventions. Its movement freedoms supply a second vocabulary in Tharp's stylistic mixtures.
Martha Graham: An American modern dancer and choreographer who developed a distinctive technique and repertory. Graham's school was among the places where Tharp studied modern dance.
New York City Ballet: A ballet company founded in New York in 1948 by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine. Tharp's collaborations with the company placed her movement ideas within Balanchine's repertory.
David Byrne: A Scottish-American musician, songwriter, and co-founder of the band Talking Heads. Byrne composed the music for The Catherine Wheel, a major Tharp dance-theater project.