Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation - The Catherine Wheel
by Twyla Tharp
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jennifer Way, Kate Glasner, Raymond Kurshals, Sara Rudner, Tom RaweDirector: Twyla Tharp
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 87 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-10-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kultur Video
Movie Reviews of Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation - The Catherine Wheel
Movie Review: Disappointed.
Summary: 3 Stars
I originally saw the final movement of The Catherine Wheel, "The Golden Section," performed live by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (arguably the best modern dance group in the world). It was completely far and beyond any contemporary performance i had ever seen. Everyone in the audience was gasping and amazed throughout the piece, and left speechless at the end. The choreography was so powerful and intricate, i had to see it again. So i decided to do some research and buy the DVD.
I should have known better than to expect the same experience and amazement from a DVD of 80's dancers compared to a live contemporary Ailey show. I believe that dance as an art form should be seen live, from the audience, with a view of the entire stage at once. Choreography--especially choreography as complex and intricate as Tharp's--is intended to be seen from far enough away that one can see all the dancers at once and still be able to read their facial expressions. Therefore, i understand that attempting to capture something as deep and potent as The Catherine Wheel on video is basically an impossible undertaking, but i was still disappointed with the way it was done for this DVD.
I really don't appreciate the prolonged close-ups of individual dancers, or extended shots of half the stage or of one couple at a time, when there are four couples on the stage all dancing different combinations. I also don't see the point of filming the dancers from the waist up. It's like only reading the top halves of the pages in a novel. It just seems to me that whoever was in charge of the cinematography had never been to a dance performance before.
Perhaps if i hadn't seen the show live, i wouldn't know what i was missing and i would think it was great. But the camera work on this DVD cuts out a lot of movement, and the technological additions interfere with the overall flow of the work. The piece is plenty abstract in its original form, so the digital interference and lack of full-stage perspective makes the whole thing nearly impossible to understand.
As a professional dancer and choreographer, i honestly expected more. I have all respect for Ms. Tharp and her work--seeing "The Golden Section" live was life-changing--but i do not think this DVD does her justice.
Summary of Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation - The Catherine Wheel
When Twyla Tharp's The Catherine Wheel was premiered on Broadway, it was described by Arlene Croce of the New Yorker as "a major event in our theatre", with "dancing of astonishing beauty and power". It was then completely refashioned by Twyla Tharp herself specially for television, with computer-generated figures, shadow-play and reverse action - creating a video version that has met with overwhelming praise: "if ever a programme demanded to be viewed again and again with a video recorder, this is it." FINANCIAL TIMES.
Set to an original score by David Byrne, the lead singer/composer of Talking Heads (perhaps the most imaginative new wave band), the dance grew out of Twyla Tharp's fascination with Saint Catherine, the 4th-century martyr who was condemned to die on a spiked wheel, Saint Catherine is represented by a 'perfect' computer-generated dancer, and it is this image of perfection that the Leader, the central figure in the dance, seeks to emulate. Set against this search for perfection by the Leader and her blindfolded chorus of followers, is the family - a crude soap-opera American family that descends through a fast-moving sequence of scenes, both comic and frightening into a primitive, violent and chaotic state. Throughout the work runs the symbolic thread of the pineapple. Traditionally a symbol of hospitality, it comes to represent a malevolent and destructive force - its silhouette like a grenade; the shape of America's first atom bomb; in cross-Scene, it is like the instrument of torture, the catherine wheel. The horrors of the disintegration of the family are also those of the nuclear age.
Finally the complex strands of the work explode into the Golden Scene, a celebration of the physical power that creates instead of destroys, a release of all frustration in a glorious display of pure energy: "if you want to see American dancing at its very best, watch the Golden Scene." THE OBSERVER
Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation, Directed and Choreographed by Twyla Tharp, Music produced, composed and performed by David Byrne. Principal Dancers: Sarah Rudner, Jennifer Way, Tom Raw. Includes Interview with Twyla Tharp.
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