The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts closes out each fall semester with five performances of the annual Winter Dance Concert—presented this week (Dec. 6-8) at the Walt Disney Modular Theater on campus and the following weekend (Dec. 14-15) at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles.
This year’s program features a restaging of Torelli by legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp, who has created more than 135 dances and five Hollywood movies, and directed and choreographed four Broadway shows since 1963.
For the past two weeks, Tharp’s rehearsal director Rika Okamoto has been in residence at CalArts to work with the student dancers who are performing Torelli. Tharp’s original was staged only once in 1971 before drawing renewed attention over the last several years.
More about the work from REDCAT:
Thwyla Tharp’s original outdoor staging of ‘Torelli’ in New York, 1971 | Photo: James Klotsky
Tharp’s 1971 ensemble piece, which follows the course of a day in the country, begins in silence with a set of everyday, matter-of-fact movement phrases before developing a “rustic humor” as the dancers build improvisations to the Baroque elegance of Giuseppe Torelli’s Concerto in D Minor.
The concert’s program also includes two world premieres by CalArts faculty members. Faculty Laurence Blake’s Rite, set to Igor Stravinsky’s iconic Rite of Spring, explores interplay between the genders, while Andre Tyson’s work dArk Matter “questions assumptions about reality and ponders the unknown forces that act upon human lives.”
CalArts Winter Dance Concert
CalArts
Walt Disney Modular Theater
Dec. 6-8, 8 pm
Tickets: General $10, CalArts Students/Faculty/Staff/Alumni $2
REDCAT
Dec. 14-15, 8:30 pm
Tickets: General $20, Members/Students $16, CalArts Students/Faculty/Staff $10