A dancer’s marathon! Enjoy these clips from the signature work by renowned American choreographer, Twyla Tharp called, In the Upper Room. It is performed in this video by members of the Corella Ballet Company at the Teatro Tivoli in Barcelona, Spain. The brilliant score is composed by Philip Glass.
This piece was originally created on Tharp’s company in 1986 for thirteen dancers. It is made up of solos, duets, trios and ensemble sections. Dancers spill in and out of the space through billowing smoke and hard warm lighting that create a mysterious hypnotic celestial space that frames the dancers. The dancers are dressed in stylish black stripes and striking scarlet designed by Norma Kamali.
This piece is a seminal work of Twyla Tharp. It shows distinct characteristics of Tharp’s movement style fused into one dynamic piece in which she contrasts the power and energy of contemporary dance with the speed and arial dexterity of classical ballet. She used two distinct groups. One wears runners whom she calls the “stompers” (shown in this video) and a second group who wear pointe shoes called the “bombers” (featured more in a future posting) The movement motif for the running shoe dancers is based on “stomping” while the pointe shoe dancers work around a “bombing” movement effect.
The movement throughout is propelled and rushed along by the driving rhythms and busy modulations in Glass’s music. There is a monotonous feeling in the music and dancing that builds tension which is diluted by the steady stream of intricate patterns and groupings that are worked around the movement elements of advancing, receding, exploding and imploding actions.
This piece is fierce, exciting and powerful. It appears deceptive in the non-challant and sidling ways in which the dancers interact and transit in and out of various sections. But it is both technically and physically demanding requiring great physicality, drive and stamina from the dancers. It is a relentless “tour de’force” from beginning to end. To me it is not just a signature piece for Twyla Tharp, but a “signature” illustration of American contemporary dance; that of drive, power, aesthetically striking and technically athletic.
These clips only give a taste of a great work that is exciting to watch.
Hope you find it exciting too and SHARE it along!
Leave a Reply