Margaret Jenkins, Sara Rudner, Twyla Tharp
Premiered at the Dance Uptown Festival at Barnard College.
Tharp's nod to German Expressionism, Jam is performed almost entirely in darkness. Flashlights, placed at the front of the stage, illuminate the dancers’ clear plastic suits worn over lavender leotards. The costumes are a progression of the cellophane canopy used in Unprocessed. The title refers to "being in a jam", both physically being stuck and emotionally in trouble.
Jam, and the previous work, One, Two Three were often performed back-to-back, forming an "opposition pair". Whereas Jam is chaotic and dark, with its movement hurled far from the dancer’s center (Dionysian), One, Two, Three is bright and ordered, serenely Apollonian, in black and white costumes.