Twyla Tharp Dance, 60th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee
Twyla Tharp celebrates the monumental 60th anniversary of her love affair with choreography in Diamond Jubilee, a concert pairing of dense ensemble pieces currently touring the US. After a weekend-long run in Chicago, Madison, Wisconsin's Overture Hall received the lite version last night. Nearly two hours of non-stop dance was all there in the choreographic offerings, a look back re-staging of her Diabelli (1998), and the unveiling of newly-minted Slacktide (2025), but the latter lacked the live music that Chicago audiences enjoyed days ago. For ten dancers and a pianist, Diabelli tackles Beethoven's 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120 in a 60-minute-long party of wit, elegance and frivolity. An accumulation of movement styles, Tharp pokes at formality by shifting from ballroom waltz to jitterbug to Laurel and Hardy-like slapstick, including almost everything but the kitchen sink. The exquisite dancers shuffle, leap, and try to outrun each other. Clad in uniform G...