Review: Twyla Tharp returns with exhilarating 'Upper Room'
At 81, choreographer Twyla Tharp is still moving forward and has revived two classics for this week's engagement at New York City Center
NEW YORK (AP) — The packed dance audience at New York City Center wasn’t missing a trick.
Just before the lights went down for the second act of Twyla Tharp’s new program Wednesday night, some in the crowd spotted the 81-year-old choreographer sneaking into her seat, small and lithe, with a bob of gray hair — and unmistakable to dance fans. There was a round of sustained cheers.
If the adoration seemed intense, take note that this crowd had just watched her dancers perform “In the Upper Room,” Tharp’s breathtaking 1986 classic that sends dancers to the outer reaches of their capabilities.
Breathtaking is an apt description in more ways than one. Audience members literally gasp, but one imagines the dancers do so even more, in the wings, in the (very) brief breaks between entries and exits. That they manage to find enough breath is almost miraculous — and explains their wide grins at curtain calls.
