In Good Company

Related Content

• Trippy Beer Ballet
  April 27, 2011
• David Lindley: Show Preview
  January 11, 2012
• Zodiac Death Valley: Show Preview
  November 2, 2011
• Learning to Deal With the Great Music Deluge
  December 6, 2011
• So, Tom Waits Is Apparently Releasing New Music Next Week
  August 17, 2011

More About

• Twyla Tharp
• Charles Anderson
• New York City Ballet
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Dance

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

The local Company C Contemporary Ballet -- directed by one-time New York City Ballet dancer Charles Anderson -- counts among its many artistic assets a strong relationship with master choreographer Twyla Tharp. It’s a good pairing. While Tharp has earned the National Medal of Arts and every other artistic honor under the sun, she has always straddled the line between the triumphant and heretical, choreographing for films such as Hair and I’ll Do Anything, collaborating with pop stars like David Byrne and Billy Joel, and risking sure ridicule by using Bob Dylan songs for ballet. Company C has a similar spirit for adventure. Tonight’s Company C Program B alone includes David Grenke’s Vespers, set to the music of Tom Waits, and Anderson’s Echoes of Innocence, set to the music of electronic composer and Kronos Quartet-collaborator Ingram Marshall. However, the apex of show will be the world premier of Tharp’s Armenia, based on ten Armenian folks songs and traditional dances compiled by Vardapet Komitas. Combining retrograde movement with unworldly speed and off-beat timing, Tharp's precision disarray demands profound stamina, good humor, and point shoes. In delicate contrast, Starshadows, a graceful adagio set to the music of Ravel, will be presented in honor of local choreographer Michael Smuin, who died this time last year while teaching class.
Sat., April 12, 8 p.m.; Sun., April 13, 2 p.m., 2008