Home & + | Search
Featured Categories: Special Focus | Performance Reviews | Previews | DanceSpots | Arts and Education | Press Releases
Join ExploreDance.com's email list | Mission Statement | Copyright notice | The Store | Calendar | User survey | Advertise
Click here to take the ExploreDance.com user survey.
Your anonymous feedback will help us continue to bring you coverage of more dance.
SPOTLIGHT:
PHOTOS
ExploreDance.com (Magazine)
Web
Other Search Options
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Photos
Modern/Contemporary
United States
Illinois
Chicago, IL

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: Baker's Dozen

by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
March 21, 2008
Chicago, IL

Featured Dance Company:

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (office)
1147 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60607
312-850-9744
www.hubbardstreetdance.com

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
www.hubbardstreetdance.com
Baker's Dozen
This Twyla Tharp classic features 12 dancers in romantically inclined couplings, wittily eccentric partnerings and finely calibrated unison work, set to the music of Willie "The Lion" Smith. This satiny smooth dance, considered one of the most elegant and exquisite jazz ballets, aims to conjure a world of living social graces and personal rapport, mixing nostalgic and contemporary emotions all together.

Twyla Tharp (Choreographer) graduated from college in 1963 and has since choreographed more than 135 dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed three Broadway shows, written two books and received one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, 19 honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President's Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts and many grants including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1965 Tharp founded her dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance. In addition to choreographing for her own company, she has choreographed for many other companies including: American Ballet Theatre, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, the Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Tharp's work first appeared on Broadway in 1980 with When We Were Very Young, followed in 1981 by her collaboration with David Byrne on The Catherine Wheel at the Winter Garden. Her 1985 production of Singin' in the Rain played at the Gershwin and was followed by an extensive national tour. In 2002, Tharp's award-winning dance musical Movin' Out set to the music and lyrics of Billy Joel premiered at the Richard Rodgers and ran for three years. A national tour opened in 2004 and also ran for three years. For Movin' Out, Tharp received the 2003 Tony Award, the 2003 Astaire Award, the Drama League Award for Sustained Achievement in Musical Theater; and both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography. For the London production, Tharp won Best Choreography (Musical Theatre) Award of the UK's Critics' Circle National Dance Awards 2006. In 2006 Tharp worked with Bob Dylan's music and lyrics to create The Times They Are A-Changin' which played at the Brooks Atkinson.

In film Tharp has collaborated with director Milos Forman on Hair in 1978, Ragtime in 1980, Amadeus in 1984, with Taylor Hackford on White Nights in 1985 and with James Brooks on I'll Do Anything in 1994.

Her television credits include choreographing Sue's Leg for the inaugural episode of PBS' Dance in America, co-producing and directing Making Television Dance, which won the Chicago International Film Festival Award and directing The Catherine Wheel for BBC Television. Tharp co-directed the television special Baryshnikov by Tharp, which won two Emmy Awards as well as the Director's Guild of America Award for Outstanding Director Achievement.

In 1992 Tharp wrote her autobiography Push Comes to Shove. Her second book, The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it For Life, was published in October, 2003.

Today Tharp continues to create and to lecture around the world.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is proud to present the revival of Twyla Tharp's Baker's Dozen, an important work from the company's past, in celebration of our 30th Anniversary Season. Staged by former company member Ron De Jesus.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: Baker's Dozen

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: Baker's Dozen

Photo © & courtesy of Todd Rosenberg


Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: Baker's Dozen

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: Baker's Dozen

Photo © & courtesy of Todd Rosenberg


Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: Baker's Dozen

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: Baker's Dozen

Photo © & courtesy of Todd Rosenberg

Search for articles by
Performance Reviews, Places to Dance, Fashion, Photography, Auditions, Politics, Health