Twyla Tharp at American Ballet Theatre

For the past two decades or so, Twyla Tharp has tended, in her new dances, to recycle features of her earlier successes, but in “Rabbit and Rogue,” which just had its première at American Ballet Theatre, she seems to repeat every single thing that has worked for her before. It’s as if she had made a list and then checked off each strategy as she reused it. Tharp’s last two projects have been failures. Her Bob Dylan musical, “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ” (2006), closed after just a few weeks on Broadway. Then, earlier this year, she made a piece for Miami City Ballet—“Nightspot,” about Miami club life—that, while it was warmly applauded by the Florida audience I saw it with (it had an Elvis Costello score and lots of red costumes), was actually a desperate-looking mess: a fact that she was probably aware of. In both pieces, Tharp explored a territory relatively new to her—dream, hallucination. It is therefore no surprise that, having had so little luck there, she chose, in her next ballet, to do nothing new to her.

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Back in Ballet, Bending all the rules

Ms. Tharp, who had been discussing her new work for American Ballet Theater, “Rabbit and Rogue,” was quite sincere. A good part of the interview had consisted of her deftly sidestepping a discussion of personal motivation. Instead she concentrated on more abstract issues about the ballet, which will have its premiere on Tuesday night at the Metropolitan Opera House, with a score by the film composer Danny Elfman and costumes by her longtime collaborator Norma Kamali.

But any new work by Ms. Tharp is a big deal, and to avoid talking about the choreographer herself would be to ignore the singular place she occupies in the dance world. An innovator and a headline maker who has both rolled with the critical punches and occasionally been felled by them, Ms. Tharp, at 66, is in the curious position of being consistently identified as both a modern dance revolutionary and one of ballet’s few great living choreographers — certainly its only female one.

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Movin' with the Uptown Girl

As a young girl growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the 1980s, Amanda Kay didn’t listen to a lot of Billy Joel.

That all changed last April when Kay won the part of Brenda in the national touring production of “Movin’ Out,” a smash Broadway hit from 2002 featuring Joel’s music and the choreography of Twyla Tharp. The show comes to Proctors in Schenectady for eight performances Tuesday through Sunday.

“He’s a little bit before my time, but I can remember walking to school listening to ‘Uptown Girl,’ and thinking it was a great song,” said Kay. “When I started rehearsals, I was re-remembering all his songs. He wrote some great music, and Twyla Tharp is a genius. This has been an amazing experience for me.”

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Perfect Pairing: The Music of Billy Joel and the Choreography of Twyla Tharp

In 2002, “Movin’ Out” — a jukebox musical featuring the pop and classical compositions of Billy Joel and choreography by the legendary Twyla Tharp — opened on Broadway and won two Tonys.

By the end of 2003, Kelly was subbing for injured dancers on Broadway, and he served as dance captain and swing for a national tour from 2004 to 2007.

For this, Kelly’s second national tour with the show, he’s dance supervisor — meaning no more subbing in for people at the last minute as a swing. But it’s the combination of Tharp’s movement and Joel’s music that keeps him invigorated.

“I love the idea of incorporating pop-style music into dance, and to dive into it, and see exactly what animal it is as analytically as Twyla, is a perfect fit for me,” says Kelly, a California native who’s been dancing since age 13.


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