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1993-04-08
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REVIEWS, Page 73DANCETwo More for The Road
By MARTHA DUFFY
TITLE: CUTTING UP
CHOREOGRAPHER: Twyla Tharp
WHERE: 24-city National Tour
THE BOTTOM LINE: Tharp and Mikhail Baryshnikov offer star
power, high-flying moments and a little too much kitsch.
This has been a bumber year for Twyla Tharp. In January
she staged a triumphant show of her quirky, inventive
choreography at Manhattan's City Center. Next came a stint in
Hollywood doing the dances for I'll Do Anything (to be released
in 1993), and then the publication of her intelligent,
candid-to-a-fault autobiography, Push Comes to Shove (Bantam;
$24.50). That's enough for most busy artists, but energy is
Tharp's signature both in choreography and in life. She has now
renewed her partnership with Mikhail Baryshnikov for a 24-city
national tour that started two weeks ago in Columbus, Ohio, and
extends until Feb. 14.
During the 1970s, when the pair discovered each other, it
seemed like a bizarre match: Baryshnikov, the supreme
classical-ballet stylist, and Tharp, whose roots were in '60s
rock and pop. But together they stretched the boundaries of
dance. Tharp was one of many choreographers who were trying to
harness their talents to the Russian's genius, and mostly these
efforts flopped. But her Push Comes to Shove (1976) showed a
different, up-to-the-minute Baryshnikov -- impish, racy and
reckless -- and a new idiom for classical ballet.
Much has changed over the years. Tharp is 51 and losing
some of her plasticity, if none of her cheek. Baryshnikov is
44. Because of recurrent knee problems, his famous jump has
been curtailed and he cannot lift Tharp, but his technique is
as pure and liquid as ever. The evening, with mostly new works,
tries to cope with the physical realities that confront them
both and is only partly successful.
The worst comes first. A medley all too aptly titled
Schtick is stale, botched Broadway, except for a fleeting, funny
solo for Baryshnikov composed of stock classical-ballet
flourishes. This kind of parody is familiar, but Tharp wisely
keeps it light and witty. The heart of the evening is a suite
for the two stars set to Pergolesi -- dreamy, deeply musical,
full of surprising yet harmonious moves. In a zippy finale, the
stars cavort, and six fine young backup dancers finally get to
strut some very flashy stuff.
Probably Tharp will refine the evening during the tour.
Maybe another oldie or two would not hurt. To see Ba
ryshnikov's lyrical, muscular performance in One More for the
Road (1983), a last-act highlight, is to watch a marvelous
synthesis of classical and modern dance -- what their creative
partnership is all about.