American Dance Festival with support from the SHS foundation and the Charles L. and Stephanie Reinhart Fund
Paige Amicon, Kathryn Anderson, Rachelle Clark, Jonathan Doherty, Piper Dye, Lenin Fernandez, Xenja Füger, Kelsey Gerber, Julia Grubbs, Emily Jo Haenny, Mary Kate Hartung, Ben Ingel, Garret McCann, Emma Morrison, Emily Orillac, Samantha Speetjens
Understudies: Katie Burks, Caroline Carlton, Anna Hulse
Staged by Rika Okamoto and Alexander Brady
In 1969, Tharp offered one of her first dance classes to students at the American Dance Festival. Since then, hundreds of dancers have taken master classes, attended lecture/demonstrations or learned works from Tharp's repertory, which are frequently taught in universities. Treefrog in Stonehenge brings Tharp's endeavors in dance education full circle: it is her first work choreographed for students and premiered at the American Dance Festival.
David Kahne composed and recorded a constantly evolving soundscape that shifts in mood, rhythm and style in close coordination with the choreography. The dance combines phrases from two new technique classes - "Treefrog" and "Stonehenge" - with elements sampled from her early works. In one section, a group of dancers enters with a series of quick leaps and rolls while putting on and removing jackets, a combination of dance and pedestrian action that was first presented in Dancing in the Streets…(1969)
The piece highlights both the individual dancers' strengths and personality as well as the sense of community that is fostered in a dance class.
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The company in PRELUDES AND FUGUES. Photo by Sharon Bradford.
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Baker, Kelley, Coppula, Trapp in PRELUDES AND FUGUES. Photo by Ruven Afanador.
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Twyla Tharp Dance performance in Florence, Italy. Photo by Graham 'gramilano' Spicer.
ADF students in rehearsal and performance.