Heroes

Principals
Roger C. Jeffrey, Matt Rivera, Andrew Robinson

Ensemble
Yi Cho, Jennifer Howard, Gabrielle Malone, Julie Stahl, Sandra Stanton

Todd Anderson, Shawn Mahoney, Victor Quijada

I. Heroes

Jeffrey, Rivera, Robinson and Company

II. Abdulmajid

Jeffrey, Rivera, Robinson and Company

III. Sense of Doubt

Jeffrey, Robinson, Anderson, Mahoney, Quijada

IV. Neuköln

Malone and Jeffrey, Rivera, Robinson, Anderson, Mahoney, Quijada

V. V2 Schneider

Full Company

Tharp collaborated with composer Philip Glass for a second time in the creation of Heroes. Glass based his score on the music of David Bowie and Brian Eno. The mood is foreboding; the music sounds of trials yet to come.

Dim lights reveal three male dancers as they move in slow unison across the stage. Deep lunges and firm, wide stances ground their movement. The men remain stable as the full cast enters, hurling themselves through the space.

The trio comes to represent an unusual kind of hero – a constant presence with a firm hand.

“In the traditional sense of a heroic saga, it’s not that pretty a picture, but they do get to another place, where they can stand for something other than this kind of false idealism of the perfect happy tomorrow…. It’s not a James Dean hero. It’s not a die­-in-­the­Old­-West, go-­off­-into­-the­-sunset-­alone hero. It’s not about being against society anymore. It’s about standing there [together], holding something up. It’s not pulling away, it’s do[ing] something about it.” – Twyla Tharp, 1996