Dance + Live Performance | Pittsburgh City Paper: Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre kicks off its 44th season with An Evening of Twyla Tharp, a salute to the irrepressible Emmy- and Tony Award-winning stage and screen choreographer. The Oct. 25-27 program features reprises of two of Tharp's most popular works.
First performed by PBT in 2006, the 35-minute "Nine Sinatra Songs" (1982) has a ballroom setting and features seven couples costumed in gowns and tuxedos designed by Oscar de la Renta. It's filled with songs like "Strangers in the Night," "One for My Baby" and "My Way."
2 comments:
I had the privilege of watching this show on opening night at the Benendum, and really enjoyed the performance. I thought the Frank Sinatra segment was beautifully done and the song selections very appropriate underscoring in showing the different facets of emotions and experiences in romantic relationships. I will make the comment that though I realize that this was a work created in the early 80s, I was a little disappointed by the extremely blasé and conservative approach taken to the material, specifically in a social cultural sense. This piece completely lacked diversity in race and sexual orientation, and I felt that for me, it made the piece less accessible. Like I said, I thought the piece was beautiful, and maybe casting choices (which is another issue entirely) were limited. However I felt that this piece didn't encourage or even show any other kind of relationship than the heteronormative couple. Even the costumes though beautiful and appropriate to the music and the themes of the performance didn't show any other class except high leveled couture. And I understand that sometimes artistically there are certain issues that you choose not to address, however when you decide to make a piece that explores major themes about romance and love...people are going to question the choices you've made and why they are so exclusive to any kind of diversity.
I also had the opportunity to watch the ballet last weekend and I had very mixed feelings about the performances. The first half which featured musical selections from Frank Sinatra while beautiful, just felt very technically correct. However, I never felt any connection to the pieces and I lost interest after the second dance. The second half on the other hand was more electrifying and engaging. Also the costumes were very simple, yet effective. Additionally, I liked the fusion of dance genres in the second half. I also understand what Christina means by the lack of diversity in terms of race and sexual orientations, but that's ballet for you.
What was also interesting was the number of empty seats that they had on opening night. It was probably only half full, which made me wonder what precedent that set for the remainder of performances. Especially taking into account that they probably had many invited and complimentary ticket audience members in attendance.
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