Howling Near Heaven: Twyla Tharp and the Reinvention of Modern Dance

by Marcia B. Siegel

Overview

For more than five decades, Twyla Tharp has been a phenomenon in American dance, a choreographer who not only broke the rules but refused to repeat her own successes. Tharp has made movies, television specials, and nearly one hundred riveting dance works. Her dance show Movin’ Out ran on Broadway for three years and won Tharp a Tony award for Best Choreography.

Howling Near Heaven is the only in-depth study of Twyla Tharp’s unique, restless creativity. This second edition features a new forward that brings the account of Tharp’s work up to date and discusses how dance and dance-making in the United States have changed in recent years. This is the story of a choreographer who refused to be pigeonholed and the dancers who accompanied her as she sped across the frontiers of dance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813068145
Publisher:	University Press of Florida
Publication date:	04/28/2020
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Marcia B. Siegel writes on dance for the ArtsFuse.org in Boston. She is a contributing editor for the Hudson Review. Her books include Days on Earth: The Dance of Doris Humphrey, The Shapes of Change: Images of American Dance, and four collections of reviews and commentary.

Table of Contents

Contents Foreword to the Second Edition ix 1. Leotard Days 1965-1966 1 2. Dance Activities 1967-1969 14 3. The End of Amazonia 1969-1971 28 4. The Entertainer 1971-1973 52 5. Local to Express 1973-1975 79 6. The Big Leagues 1975-1978 106 7. Hodge Podge Rummage 1976-1979 131 8. Family Business 1979-1981 152 9. Romance and the Opposite 1982-1983 176 10. Three-Way Stretch 1983-1990 200 11. The Anti-company 1990-1995 225 12. Near Heaven 1995-2005 250 Epilogue: An Audience of One 277 Notes 281 A Note on Sources 306 Selected Bibliography 308 Acknowledgments 313 Index 317

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Siegel’s in-depth treatment of one of America’s greatest choreographers is invigorating to read.”—Wendy Perron

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the previous edition: Choice Outstanding Academic Title “Reading such intelligent, formidable prose about Ms. Tharp is a joy.”—New York Times “Not only does Siegel furnish us with highly detailed descriptions of various Tharp works and vivid accounts of particular performances, she also tries to give us a real sense of the creative process as manifested in this particular artist.”—Los Angeles Times “Siegel provides a wealth of insight into the choreographer’s groundbreaking movement vocabulary and its development over four decades. . . . A thoughtful record of Tharp’s oeuvre and a must for theater and dance scholars and aficionados.”—Publishers Weekly “For those of us who experienced these dances live, the book summons images of a heady era in recent dance history. For those who missed these works (even the ephemera), the prose makes us regret our absence.”—Dance Magazine “Siegel’s attention to detail allows the history of Tharp to become a story. She ties Tharp’s past to her present work, as well as the evolution of American dance. In so doing, she carves a permanent place for Tharp within written dance history.”—Dance Research Journal

“Siegel expertly reads direction and purpose into the chaos of Tharp's career from the '60s at Judson to her commercial successes decades later. . . . In this book, Siegel is able to integrate Tharp's contribution and status of icon within the world of American Modernist dance.”—Broadway World

From the Publisher