Ballet and Modern Dance Clash in Tharp’s ‘Room’

Waves of dancers hurtle out of a smoky glare intensely pumping out steps--half of the groups neoclassical in style, the others postmodern. Think of the stage (or TV studio) as a giant boxing ring with ballet and modern dance facing off in a championship bout and you’ll get some idea of the oppositions forming Twyla Tharp’s 1986 ensemble piece “In the Upper Room.”

Complete with its forceful Philip Glass score, this work comes to the PBS “Dance in America” series tonight in perhaps the weakest Tharp performance ever telecast. The problem: Tharp no longer has a company of her own and the dancers assembled for this project look under-rehearsed--prone to small technical glitches and hesitations that keep the dancing from becoming an engulfing experience.

When Tharp’s old company performed “In the Upper Room,” modern dance emerged the victor. When American Ballet Theatre acquired it, however, the classical dancing and even the rather clunky pointe-work suddenly became predominant. The telecast version is too much a jumble to declare a winner, but the male modern-dance trio does take the audience by storm--especially Jamie Bishton, a veteran of the original cast. (However, the term “modern dance” should be relative here, since another member of that trio is Keith Roberts, who recently danced Romeo with American Ballet Theatre in Costa Mesa.)

Derek Bailey’s direction and Girish Bhargava’s editing often blunt the quasi-military formality of the choreography (the sense of dance armies on the assault) by peering at the cast from every possible angle and changing camera positions at random.

Tharp introduces the program, “Twyla Tharp: Oppositions,” with two solos and documentary clips that are entertaining enough, as far as they go, but they don’t even mention the obvious stylistic playoff that gives the program its title.

* “Twyla Tharp: Oppositions” airs tonight on the PBS “Dance in America” series at 10 on KCET Channel 28.