Blurred lines

With 160 dance pieces, a Tony award, 19 honorary doctorates and a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, Twyla Tharp has accomplished several lifetimes worth of achievements, and at 75, can probably still put most of us to shame on the dance floor. The lady doesn’t mess around, and this stop in Folsom is part of the 50th anniversary of her company, Twyla Tharp Dance.

A casual observer of today’s dance culture might note that fewer distinct genres exist; hip-hop draws on jazz which draws on ballet which mixes with modern, and that development can very much be traced back to Tharp, She’s been a trailblazer in crossover choreography and making ballet a malleable form that melds into pop culture. Her 1973 work Deuce Coupe was danced by the Joffrey Ballet and set to the music of the Beach Boys, for instance, and she’s spread herself all over the musical map with pieces set to Beethoven, Brahms, Bob Dylan and Billy Joel. She’s choreographed work on the best dance companies all over the world, like the American Ballet Theatre, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Australian Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Anniversary tour attendees will revisit decades’ worth of Tharp’s choreography performed by some of the best dancers in the country.