Designed to spread itself throughout the spaces of a museum's various
galleries, Dancing in the Streets of London and Paris, Continued in
Stockholm And Sometimes Madrid was commissioned by the Wadsworth Atheneum in
Hartford, Connecticut. It originally included a mini-retrospective, in
excerpt form, of all previous Tharp dances, performed by novice dancers in
the museum's auditorium, while veteran Tharpians wended their way through
the edifices various galleries. From the dancers' warm-up routines, over
which arriving and wandering audiences need to step, the seemingly informal
dance activity extends from rigorous, unison work through to seemingly
casual, pedestrian actions, such as reading books, changing and exchanging
clothing and chewing gum. Closed-circuit television monitors and detailed
floor plans help the audience stay abreast of the full spread and sprawl of
the dance activities taking place in the site's various nooks and crannies.
Foot-printed floor-patterns instruct and guide the audience to take some
part in the dance's spread-out plan. "Couldn't life and art be
simultaneous," the dance aimed to say, winding its way through the space and
time of a visit to a museum.