This self-contained excerpt from a longer work called The Raggedy Dances
[see same] presents three of the full suite's most popular segments. The
well-known "Maple Leaf Rag," which has become even more popular since Tharp
used it here, opens with a classic "rag" for a male and female dancer in
friendly competition and rapport. Its aptly witty and vernacular
accentuations become even more witty in the duet's central segment, to the
Mozart variations often nicknamed "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Here the
two dancers perform a kind of Tharpian "challenge" dance, with their
sometimes punchy leg- and armwork accentuating and slicing the space and
rapport between them, as Mozart's variations similarly and teasingly
challenge the ear. The tellingly named "Ragtime Dance" wraps the 3-part duet
up into a neat climax, with some of the duet's more eccentric moments being
described as a "tangle of coincidental ballroom clutches."