Dance aficionados and Frank Sinatra fans will experience a cultural treat on January 26 when the Nevada Ballet Theatre honors dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp as their ‘Woman of the Year’ at the NBT’s 24th annual Black & White Ball.

“Last year we went very Hollywood,” explains Nevada Ballet’s Executive Director Beth Barbre, referring to the 2007 recipient, Paula Abdul. “This year we’re going very New York.” The fundraiser, which will be held at the Wynn Hotel, pays tribute to one of the greatest choreographers of our time, who reinvented modern dance, marrying it to classical ballet, jazz and pop music in her own witty, athletic, musically-sophisticated style.

During the past four decades, Twyla Tharp has choreographed more than 135 dances and five Hollywood movies: “Hair” in 1979; “Ragtime” in 1981; “Amadeus” in 1984; “White Nights” in 1985 with the legendary Baryshnikov, who she affectionately refers to as “Misha” and the great Gregory Hines; and “I’ll Do Anything” in 1994.

In 1984 Tharp also co-directed the television special “Baryshnikov by Tharp” which earned her two Emmy Awards as well as the Director’s Guild of America Award for Outstanding Director Achievement.

Tharp has directed and choreographed three Broadway shows, written two books, received one Tony Award, two Emmys, 17 honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President’s Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts and a number of grants. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

“We are so honored to have her as our ‘Woman of the Year,’” says Gillian Wynn Early, who is chairing the 2008 event. “We’re going very highbrow, thanks to Ms. Tharp. It’s really elevating us.”

On February 8-9, Nevada Ballet will present a three-part program entitled, From Stravinsky to Sinatra, which includes Twyla Tharp’s 1982 signature work, “Nine Sinatra Songs,” with costumes by the legendary designer Oscar de la Renta. Audiences will sway, swing and swoon to Ms. Twarp’s ballroom duets as Ol’ Blue Eyes croons “Softly as I Leave You,” “Strangers in the Night,” “One for My Baby,” “My Way,” “Somethin’ Stupid,” “All the Way,” “Forget Domani,” “That’s Life” and “My Way.” Three of these numbers will be previewed at the Black & White Ball.

Gillian Wynn Early recalls that when she told her father, Steve Wynn, that she was going to New York to meet with Tharp this past October, he asked if he could join her. “He’s a huge fan of her work and it turned out to be one of the greatest father-daughter experiences we’ve ever shared.”

As a child, Early grew up in a world filled with important and impressive people and says she rarely gets star-struck or intimidated. Not so with Tharp. “I love the ballet so much that I was very nervous about meeting Twyla. She’s such a strong, opinionated and substantial person. But the minute she opened the door and greeted us in her deadpan way, she put me at ease.”

Much to their surprise, eight dancers were assembled in the small dance studio in Tharp’s apartment. “She was anxious to show us some new material they had been working on for two weeks,” explains Early. “My dad and I sat down, and with Twyla at the stereo, we had our own private 20-minute preview. We were a very enthusiastic audience of two - whooping and hollering and clapping. Afterwards, the three of us sat around her kitchen table and she fed us a lovely, healthy lunch.”

Those who are fans of Tharp’s work, as well as those who are unfamiliar with her, will appreciate how a young girl born in 1941 in Indiana achieved extraordinary success in the cultured world of dance.

It’s impressive that at the age of 24 Tharp started her own dance company and went on to work with the American Ballet Theatre, The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet and The Martha Graham Dance Company.

By the early ’70s Tharp was recognized for her unique style that included irreverent squiggles, shrugged shoulders, little hops and jumps to conventional dance steps, a technique she calls the “stuffing” of movement phrases.

In 1973 she created a work called “Deuce Coup” set to music by the Beach Boys. Paul Simon, Bruce Springstein and Bob Dylan have also inspired her work.

On January 1, 1976, her landmark creation, “Push Comes to Shove,” premiered and gained a place in the international repertory as the world’s best known “cross-over” ballet. With a ragtime prelude, it featured experimental moves devised especially for Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Her enduring repertoire includes the 2003 Tony award-winning dance musical, “Movin’ Out,” set to the music and lyrics of Billy Joel, which had a three-year run on Broadway. She has also received the Drama League Award for Sustained Achievement in Musical Theater, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography and the 2003 Astaire Award.

Currently Tharp is preparing a 40-minute ballet to commissioned music by Elvis Costello for the Miami City Ballet, which will be performed in March. She is also rigorously working on a ballet with Danny Elfman, who has composed 12 Tim Burton films and won a Grammy for “Batman” and an Emmy for his “Desperate Housewives” theme.

So whether you’re ready to put on your dancing shoes and cut a rug or slip your tired dogs into a comfortable pair of slippers, enjoy getting Up Close and Personal with Twyla Tharp.

MR: Describe yourself in three words.
TT: Short, persistent and I like to think, honest.

MR: I have to ask you about the name Twyla.
TT: My mother named me after Twila Thornburg, the “Pig Princess” at the 89th annual Muncie Fair in Indiana, but she promptly changed the spelling to Twyla because she thought it would look better on a marquee. She owned a movie theater in Indiana and moved the family to San Bernardino, California in 1951 because she wanted to own a drive-in theater. Obviously a marquee was very important.

MR: What was your childhood like?
TT: My mother was a concert pianist and from the time I was a baby, I always heard her practice and I always remem-ber things moving with the music. My mother gave me an extraordinary education. At two years old I started taking keyboard lessons, which I played for over 20 years and
by four I was taking tap lessons in the garage.

MR: When did you know that dance would become your career?
TT: It wasn’t until after I graduated college in 1963 that I said to
myself, ‘Ok, what is it that you think you do best?’ And I said, ‘Dance.’ And I said, ‘Don’t do that. That’s such a bad choice; can’t you choose anything else?’ And I said, ‘Sorry, you asked me.’ But I didn’t pursue dance for any other reason than that it would bring the reward that comes from believing you do something well.
My glorious confidence of youth came from taking a lot of dancing classes and looking at myself in lots of mirrors in the context of a lot of other dancers and going, ‘Ok, I can do that…I can do that…no, I can’t do that…sorry dear.’ I tried to be pragmatic and realistic about what made sense for me and what didn’t.

MR: What are you passionate about besides dance?
TT: There’s not too much else. My son, that’s it.

MR: What’s your most treasured material possession?
TT: I’m an anti-materialist. Objects are a distraction. I guess I could say the body, but it’s changing every minute so it doesn’t remain corporeal, if you see what I’m saying.  

MR: Who would you trade places with for
24 hours?
TT: I don’t have time to expose myself to know who else is alive. How’s that for a bad answer? I figure everyone has their privileges and everyone has their problems. Devil best known, I guess I’ll stay in my own skin.

MR: What three people have most influenced your life?
TT: Again, that’s an extraordinary difficult question to answer because you’re a tree inside a forest. Who would not include their parents or teachers or books, composers, painters and philosophers and scientists?

MR: How did you come up with “Nine Sinatra Songs?”
TT: I’d done a lot of research on early ballroom forms in this country for “Ragtime” — the one-step, two-step, fox-trot, and, of course, the waltz, which I would deal with later on in “Amadeus.” Sinatra has this huge longevity in popular American music. It resonates with a kind of drama that is very theatrical. In 1982 I created “Nine Sinatra Songs,” which was a tribute to the music from my parents’ era, which I associate with the long-term commitment of the ’50s and ’60s in terms of marriage. It shows the life of a couple from beginning (infatuation and passion) to end (ongoing acceptance). After I did “Push Comes to Shove” with Misha, I created the first Sinatra piece, which was a duet with Misha at the Met called, “Once More Frank.”
It was an absolute disaster. People were wildly disappoin-ted because they came to see Misha turn and jump and he didn’t do any of that. This was not a smart thing to do, but he enjoyed being revolutionary. I had to endure that for awhile, but I kept thinking “One for the Road” is a great song, “That’s Life” is a great song, so I decided to make “Nine Sinatra Songs” for my own company. Then Misha saw it and he said ‘I want my own,’ so I made him “Sinatra Suites” which had some excerpts from the big piece and a solo for him. At this count, there have been three Sinatra pieces.

MR: You speak of Baryshnikov with great affection.
TT: He’s the dancer of his generation, a phenomenal performer and a great adventurer who’s willing to take on challenges.

MR: What do you think of “Dancing with the Stars?”
TT: Anything that encourages people to believe they are connected to dancing is critical. When you move to music, you feel better.
It makes for a more optimistic outlook, a body that is more capable of existing in its daily routine, and a clearer head.

MR: Name something people would be surprised to learn about you.
TT: I love square dancing. It is very community oriented. It’s designed for people with two left feet. Plus the caller tells you what to do.
What could be better?

MR: People probably also don’t know that you do a lot of speaking engagements, one of which was for NASA. It seems like an odd fit.
Why would they hire a choreographer?
TT: It beats me. When they came to me, I said, ‘This is a hoot.’ But I assume that rocket science is like anything else. They’re going to run up against their walls and they’re going to need, forgive the word, “creative” solutions. Everyone has different problems, but everyone has problems. I bring the message that there are possibilities, there’s never a dead end. You have to be willing to think out of the box.

MR: Tell us how “Movin’ Out” came about.
TT: In 2000 I had an idea to make an all-dancing Broadway musical to the songs of Billy Joel. I’ve been listening to his songs since he started recording and I felt in my bones that he wrote great dancing music. I had just started a new company of six marvelous dancers and I thought a two-hour extravagance to all the hits of a major American pop idol would fit the bill. The only problem was, I didn’t know Billy Joel. I didn’t know if he was an ego-maniac, a bored rock star or a cool guy who was open to something new. His songs told great stories and he seemed like a down-to-earth good guy so I got his phone number and called him up. I told him I had a project in mind. Later on when Billy came to my home, I showed him a video we’d done with some dancing to solo piano music from his classical Fantasies and Delusions album. Then it switched to his rock hits like “Uptown Girl” and “Big Shot.” When the tape ended, he said, “I didn’t know my stuff could look so good.” I asked him for permission to use his songs to tell a story and he said okay.

MR: What greats in the dance world do you most admire?
TT: In my formative days when one makes attachments to heroes it was Balanchine and Martha Graham. And I learned an enormous amount from Jerry (Jerome) Robbins, who was a really good friend.

MR: Do you go to see your pieces performed?
TT: As little as possible.

MR: Do you have a favorite?
TT: (With mock admonishment) Absolutely not. They all have their place in this world (laughter). There are those that have been more successful, but it’s not for me to judge. I graduated in art history so there’s a sense of context. It takes some time to pass before we know what is going to be relevant.
I always say that dance is the first art form because we gotta be born and we gotta get movin’ before we can make music or before we can learn to talk.

For information or tickets to the Black & White Ball, call the Nevada Ballet at 702-243-2623 X 222. For “Stravinski to Sinatra” tickets, call UNLV’s Box Office at 702-895-ARTS.

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