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Prescribed artist
Twyla Tharp
A seminal artist is defined by the Stage 6 Dance Syllabus as one which has significantly influenced how dance as an artform is perceived.
When researching a prescribed artist it is essential that we examine the following:
- Biographical details, background/training
- Socio-historic context
- Genre/characteristics of style
- The artist and his or her work
- Influences
- The development of dance and other arts
It is through the examination of these key points that we can draw conclusions about Twyla Tharp's role as a prescribed seminal artist to address the following focal points of study:
- •Why the prescribed artist is considered a seminal artist in relation to dance and the era.
- •How the prescribed artist's work establishes her as a seminal artist.
(Stage 6 Dance Syllabus, pp.37)
Biographical details, background/training
- Born 1st July 1941 in Portland Indiana, USA. In examining Tharp's early years she grew up in California where her parents ran a drive-in movie. She was exposed to a variety of dance styles as a child. Some essential questions to examine include:
What genres in dance was she exposed to as a young dancer? Was she influenced by a specific style or artist? Through what other medium/s did she experience American popular culture when she was growing up?
- Twyla Tharp's mother was a dominant force in her life with extremely high expectations placed on her when it came to education,
How is this reflected throughout her career?
- Tharp studied art history at Bernard College in New York, graduating in 1963.
Whilst studying in College, Tharp had the opportunity to studying with dance artists such as Martha Graham
and Merce Cunningham
How did these artists influence Twyla Tharp throughout her career?
- Tharp then spent two years dancing in Paul Taylor 's Company.
- Twyla Tharp is a prescribed seminal artist whose contribution to the development of dance as an artform began in 1965 when she founded her own dance company.
- Her first choreographic work in 1965 was titled Tank Dive
Where did this performance take place?
What was the duration of the work?
How many dancers performed in the work and what was significant about their background/training?
Socio-historic context
What was happening in society in the era from the 1960's 2000? Politically? Socially? This era should be examined from a national perspective, i.e. in American history. It should also be examined briefly from an international viewpoint.
The 1960's were a time of great change as American society experienced the Cultural Revolution. The hippie era was about peace, love and alternative lifestyles.
Significant events to consider:
- John F Kennedy becomes American President.
- Martin Luther King Jr made the speech I have a Dream on August 28 th 1963.
- John F Kennedy assassinated in Dallas Texas (Conspiracy Theories Who killed Kennedy?)
- 1964 The Beatles rocked the world.
- 1964 The first Civil Rights Bill is passed to stop racial discrimination
- The Vietnam War- Americans begin protesting about the War
- 1968 Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy are assassinated in this year both were civil rights leaders.
- America's first black woman is elected to congress Shirley Chisholm
- 1969 Woodstock- a weekend of music love and peace
- July 20th 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind (Neil Armstrong).
Question: Dance reflects social change. Discuss.
It is essential that students contextualize artists' work by examining significant events (era) and drawing parallels with what was happening in the development of dance as an artform and the society in which it is placed.
TASK: Create a timeline of significant events from 1960-2000. Do this in 10-year periods (decades) and then examine the prescribed artists work within this time frame to draw correlation to specific works of the artist.
Genre/characteristics of style
Genre: Post Modernism
Post-modernism is a term coined in the 1970s which is used to denote the period from the 1960s onwards,post meaning after. Thus post modernists were the generation of dancers and choreographers who in the 1960s exploded onto the dance scene challenging the boundaries of the modern era in dance. The term encompasses all kinds of experimental dance beginning in the 1960s and continuing throughout the 1990s (Craine and Mackrell, 2000).
The 1960s are referred top as the post modern era in dance and is also known as the Judson era. The Judson collective grew out of a choreographic workshop led by musician Robert Dunnwide ranging exploratory sessions. The Judson became a home base of new ideas, a fertile disruptive point of liberation in dance (Robertson & Hutera, 1988:192)
As the early pioneers of modern dance rejected the regimented and codified classical ballet, this era in dance was time again when artists were rebelling against a creeping codification of the modern dance genre which by the late 1950s saw the beginnings of a formulaic, even opulent spectacle
The 1960s was a time of "experimental dance". There were no rules and no boundaries. Unity evolved in what the artists were opposed to rather than in the form of a common goal.
Characteristics of Style
What are the characteristics that can be identified in Tharp's works that make them unique? Characteristics of style can be attributed to movement, manipulation of the elements of dance, use of theatrical elements.
The artist and her work
It is essential that where possible students view works by Twyla Tharp to identify unique characteristics of the artists' style. Reviews on specific works help to provide insight to not only the works but to the audiences' response to them.
1973 Deuce Coupe'
Choreographed to the music of the Beach Boys this work brought Tharp to the public's attention for the first time in 1973 as it
Proved that modern dance had an important role to play in a ballet company. Tharp's loose limbed, jazz influenced style gave classically trained dancers a new performing attitude and they loved it. (Craine and Mackrell:2000)
Review of restaging of Deuce Coupe
1976 Push comes to Shove'
Choreographed for Mikhail Baryshnikov to Haydn's Symphony No. 82
She created a new personality for him: a blend of the sly, the unpredictable, the wryly self-mocking, the witty and the prodigiously virtuosic -From him she wanted speedhe had to perform multiple pirouettes with great velocity, but at the same time keep his body off-centre. (Bremser: 2004)
1981 The Catherine Wheel'
Here Tharp pushed out the boundaries of conventional dance storytelling, creating a gallery of characters (an archetypal American family) who love, hate, fight and destroy one another and then disappear into a radiantly apocalyptic finale known as The Golden Section' (Robertson and Hutera:1988)
1986 In the Upper Room'
Tharp's choreography like Phillip Glass's music, proves a paean of energy, a sunburst of dance. This fiercely controlled, demonic energy, contained in classically-molded gobbets of dance, is used as inchoate building blocks for choreographic architecture of individualist power and texture. The troupe many of the dancers were new this season, young, raw but classically oriented threw themselves into In the Upper Room with unholy kamikaze joy. (Barnes:1987)
Throughout her continuing career Twyla Tharp has choreographed over one hundred works. She has also developed choreography for mainstream film and musical theatre.
Influences
Artists such as George Balanchine , Martha Graham , Paul Taylor and Robert Joffrey played a role in influencing Twyla Tharp in her artistic career.
Research these artists and e xplain how they influenced Tharp's career.
Twyla Tharp's contribution to the development of dance as an artform has been significant how has she changed/developed the art form? Who has she influenced?
The development of dance and other arts
What was happening in the development of dance as an artform - socially, culturally and within specific genres such as classical ballet? What was happening in Art, Music and Theatre? This broad perspective may provide students with an understanding of the prescribed artist and the significance of their contribution to the development of dance as an artform.
The radical changes in dance had parallels in the art world. For example:
Various styles of representational painting began to challenge the primacy of Abstract Expressionism. The most iconoclastic of these was Pop Art, which derived imagery from such ordinary, even banal, sources such as movies, comic books and advertising displays. (Anderson, 1997: 211)
As a starting point for research, click on the links to Wikipedia articles below:
Pop art
Minimalism
Conceptual art
Performance art
The following two questions are based on Area of Study 2 and 3.
Why is Twyla Tharp considered a seminal artist in relation to dance and the era 1960-2000?
How does Twyla Tharp's work establish her as a seminal artist?
In your response, use reference to specific works by Tharp.
References:
Recommended reading The Twyla Tharp profile Academy of Achievement.
- Anderson, J. (1997). Art Without Boundaries University of Iowa Press, USA.
- Au, Susan. (2002). Ballet and Modern Dance Revised edition. Thames and Hudson Ltd, London
- Barnes, Clive. (1987). Dance and Dancers Magazine
- Bremser,M (ed) (1999). Fifty Contemporary Choreographers Routlege, USA & Canada
- Board of Studies NSW, (1999). Stage 6 Dance Syllabus
- Craine, D & Mackrell, J. (2000). The Oxford Dictionary of Dance Oxford University Press, USA.
- Robertson A & Hutera, D. (1988). The Dance Handbook Longman Group UK Ltd, UK.
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