O.C. DANCE : Tharp Still Having Her ‘Fling’ : Despite Uncertain Role at ABT, Choreographer’s Work in Spotlight

Modern-dance choreographer Twyla Tharp made dance history in 1988 when she became artistic associate of American Ballet Theatre and folded five of her dancers into ABT.

Bringing a modern-dance contingent into a ballet company had never been tried before, and dance watchers wondered whether the two differing aesthetics and styles could work together.

Tharp had taken a big gamble. She had dissolved her own company and, some charged, gone Establishment--even though she had been associated with ABT since 1976 when she choreographed her insouciant “Push Comes to Shove” as a showcase for Mikhail Baryshnikov, ABT’s artistic director.

Then the world came crashing down. Baryshnikov resigned his position last June and left after a bitter dispute.

Like good soldiers honoring the tradition of letting a new leader name his own team, Tharp and fellow artistic associate, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, also resigned in June.

“They felt it was not appropriate--given the search for a new artistic director--that their titles should be in place,” an ABT spokesman said Monday.

Last week, the new artistic team was named--Jane Hermann, whom Baryshnikov brought over from the Metropolitan Opera in September to be ABT’s executive director, and 72-year-old Oliver Smith, who had been associated with Ballet Theatre since 1944.

Tharp’s name was nowhere to be found.

“Tharp has no official title at the moment,” the spokesman said. “Her specific role with the company for the future has not yet been determined, although discussions are ongoing.”

Sound ominous? Rumors, of course, abound. . . .

Tharp declines to be interviewed about her future role with the company, according to the spokesman. Hermann could not be reached for comment.

But not everyone is ready to write the finale to the Tharp-ABT era. Certainly not the three former Tharpians appearing with ABT this week in Costa Mesa. (Two of the original Tharp dancers--Richard Colton and Daniel Sanchez--have left ABT to pursue other career options, according to an ABT spokesman.)

“It hurts the company to have rumors and people talking,” says Shelley Washington, who had danced with Tharp for 15 years.

“It’s much too early to tell. The company just got a new management. People should sit back and wait and let it take its course. And think positively about the future. . . .

“At this moment we’re basking in the sheer delight of putting (Tharp’s new) ‘Brief Fling’ on the stage. That’s what we’re talking about. This piece shows there is a future for Twyla in Ballet Theatre.”

Washington was hired as a ballet mistress to maintain the integrity of Tharp repertory, while Tharp herself worked on new creations.

“It’s been a very positive and productive year. Basically, I feel more secure with myself and the company. The first year was hard--giving up what I had in Twyla’s company, coming to a new place. . . . Now I feel it’s like my home. The company is comfortable with us. There is no longer such a separation of Tharp dancers and Ballet Theatre dancers.”

Renowned as a dancer herself, Washington is seen only in ‘Brief Fling’ in Orange County.

“It’s very hard to dance and rehearse all of these ballets,” she said. Therefore, “I’m not dancing so much, and that’s fine. I don’t miss dancing. I love it when I’m there, but I also like the other things I’m doing. . . . I don’t feel cheated one way or another.”

Kevin O’Day, another Tharp dancer in ABT who was seen as the boxing champ in Tharp’s “Everlast” in 1989, agrees that the Tharp dancers have been more fully integrated into the company.

Last week, he danced Tybalt in “Romeo and Juliet” at the Center and will be dancing Hilarion in “Giselle” in Washington next month. Neither is a Tharpian role. He is also understudying roles in Tudor’s “Dark Elegies” and “Pillar of Fire,” and has danced in Cunningham’s “Duets” and De Mille’s “Rodeo,” among other works.

“It’s a different aesthetic,” O’Day said of the shift from Tharp to ABT. “We’re trying to fit in, trying to work that out. But a lot of things rub off on you while you’re here. With Twyla’s stuff, it was much more (trying) not to look like a dancer. This is more like looking like a dancer. It just makes you more rounded and not stuck in one vein.”

O’Day feels that Tharp’s bridging the worlds of ballet and modern dance is the wave of the future. “Dancers are going to have to cross over more,” O’Day said.

Jamie Bishton, another Tharp dancer in ABT, said that things have improved for him over the past year.

“I don’t feel that I’m sitting around like I was last year,” he said. “I’ve been given this opportunity to work within this company and they are allowing me to work. I’ve gained a lot of respect, not only from the management but from my peers. What more can I ask for?”

He has no bitterness about being kept waiting.

“That was to be expected,” he said. ABT “didn’t know who we were. Within Twyla’s company, we’d had our own identity. But there had to be a period of transition until we were able to be in more things, for ABT to see me do what I do best. . . . ‘Brief Fling’ gives me that opportunity.”

Indeed, Bishton’s speedy turns and arabesques in “Brief Fling” showcase him in a way that his “In the Upper Room” role never did.

“ ‘Brief Fling’ is the exact opposite of ‘Upper Room,’ which starts slow and moves into complete abandon,” he said. “ ‘Brief Fling’ starts completely abandoned and ends more legato, stretched, lengthened.

“To start a piece at fever pitch is an incredible challenge. Before the curtain comes up, you’re on and your motor is going like a bull coming out of the stall.”

Bishton credits Tharp’s choreography for managing the unique marriage of modern dance and ballet, and refuses to dismiss her from ABT’s future.

“The whole company is in a transitional phase right now,” he said. “We’re taking it one day at a time--which has been Twyla’s philosophy all along: Let’s deal with it as a process. . . .

“It’s evident from ‘Brief Fling’ how her work has evolved, how she has utilized what she knows best for her own dancers and ABT dancers,” he said. “She is definitely in the picture. To say that she isn’t, that’s a farce.”

Three works by Twyla Tharp will be danced on four out of five American Ballet Theatre programs this weekend at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. “In the Upper Room” can be seen at 8 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday. Tharp’s new “Brief Fling” is on the bill for 8 p.m. Saturday. “Push Comes to Shove” will be danced at 8 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $10-$40. Information: (714) 556-2787.