The lady on the yoga mat pulls and tugs as if she were training for a triathlon: leg stretching, push-ups, neck flexion – and an extra obstacle is built in everywhere. The white head of hair flutters with every movement, while Twyla Tharp resolutely declares from the off: “Dancers have to work. I have to work.” This is how the choreographer kept it all her life, and this is how she will continue to do so. The 80th birthday, which she celebrates on July 1st, does not change the fact that Tharp is still artistically and physically looking for the limit and has not lost any of its sharp tongue. This is exactly what the two-hour documentary that the US television station PBS adores for her anniversary shows: a portrait of a superwoman who does not spare herself or others and the old age with the motto “Shut up and dance!” keeps in check.
The hyperactive element marks her childhood in California. Little Twyla receives piano, ballet, painting and French lessons – more input is hardly possible. Unless you live in New York, which is where Miss Tharp moves to take up art history studies and at the same time do an apprenticeship with dance innovators like Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham. In 1965 she founded her own troupe and quickly became part of the avant-garde. With breakneck variations and trendy recombinations of modern dance vocabulary, Tharp pushes the studio doors wide open: Her dancers play in the woods and fields, museums and street canyons as casually daring daredevils.
The ballet on the Rhine was commanded via Zoom: clear, businesslike, tight
It’s exactly the kind of challenge that classical dance of those years also longed for. Tharp has choreographed international elite companies since the 1970s, sending superstars like Mikhail Baryshnikov to dance galaxies in which wit, glamor and virtuosity sparkle. Tharp’s professional obsession brings her engagements on Broadway and finally in film, for which she packs musicals like “Hair” or “Amadeus” in an attractive way. The enormous success never goes to her head, but simply serves as an incentive for the next hurdle run. Tharp raises a son, is showered with awards, writes books, including the bestsellers “The Creative Habit” and “Keep it moving – Lessons for the rest of your life”. Their main message: “Nothing is worse than standing still.”
It makes sense that she didn’t put her hands on her lap even in lockdown. The ballet on the Rhine was commanded via Zoom: clear, businesslike, tight – at five in the morning, New York time. Hopefully, Twyla Tharp will be able to travel to the premiere in September. No matter where she is staying: Your Düsseldorf host should roll out the yoga mat.