TITAS Presents, in association with the AT&T Performing Arts Center, proudly announced today that it is co-commissioning an evening of new work by Twyla Tharp, one of the most important and influential choreographers of our time. The work will premiere in Dallas at the AT&T Performing Arts Center Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House on September 18th and 19th, launching Tharp’s Fiftieth Anniversary Tour. The 10-week North American tour will celebrate Tharp’s five decades of dance-making for both modern and ballet companies, television, the Broadway stage and Hollywood films.
The commissioning of new work by Twyla Tharp marks an important collaboration between Dallas nonprofits TITAS Presents/AT&T Performing Arts Center and four other leading dance presenters/performing arts centers across the United States. The Fiftieth Anniversary Tour will be the first time since 2002 that Tharp has toured a group of dancers. Twyla Tharp Dance is comprised of 12 dancers, many of whom have worked with Tharp over the years. The music for the new dances was composed by J.S. Bach, Henry Butler, Steve Bernstein, and John Zorn.
“This commissioning project has been years in the making. The national partnership and commissioning of an artist as important as Twyla Tharp, with the world premiere taking place here in Dallas, is enormously important for the missions of TITAS Presents, the Center and our city. We are establishing, internationally, our commitment to fostering new works and that the city of Dallas is committed to the arts,” said Charles Santos, Executive and Artistic Director of TITAS Presents.
TITAS, under the leadership of Charles Santos, has a long history of commissioning new works by such choreographers as Twyla Tharp, Mia Michaels, Dwight Rhoden, Jessica Lang, Adam Hougland and locally, Bruce Wood, Bridgett Moore, Ben Stevenson, Lily Weiss and Kitty Carter.
“There is a reason Twyla Tharp is called a legend: her creative engine never stops producing exciting and landmark works,” said Doug Curtis, president and CEO of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. “This premiere and commission, alongside the premieres of our resident companies, is a testament to the Center’s commitment to supporting artists and the creative process.”
The Joyce Theater in New York City and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, initiated the commissioning of the evening. Besides TITAS Presents/AT&T Performing Arts Center, the other members of the consortium include the Ravinia Festival Association/Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in Chicago and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. The tour will also include stops in over 15 cities (venues and locations to be announced at a later date).
The Fiftieth Anniversary Tour will open the TITAS Presents 2015/2016 Season. Ticket information is forthcoming. Visit www.attpac.org/twyla for developing details.
