A Selective Guide to the Arts in Los Angeles

Twyla Tharp comes to the Wallis this week. Photo by Ruven Afandor

Renowned choreographer, director, author and one-time rabble-rouser Twyla Tharp is celebrating her five decades of creating eye-popping dances. She brings 13 dancers and a 50th Anniversary Tour to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills for four shows this Thursday, Oct. 1, through Saturday, Oct. 3, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 4, at 2 p.m.

This innovative dance maker has made work that has been performed on concert stages, on Broadway, in Hollywood films and on television, in museums and on skating rinks. She shocked audiences back in the ’70s when she blended modern dance with ballet, and she continues to blur genre restrictions. At this point, she has added boxing and her own “Treefrog Technique” into her bag (think squat and jump, deep plies and high elevation). By now, her dances have been performed by the highest-quality professional dancers across the globe, ice skaters, students, football players and all variations of the human body.

This new program includes two world premieres: “Preludes and Fugues,” set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and “Yowzie,” set to a compilation of American jazz arranged by Henry Butler and Steve Bernstein. All the costumes have been designed by longtime collaborator Santo Loquasto.

Along with this prestigious local engagement, the company has invited local enthusiasts — not just dancers, but anyone interested — to be part of performing “The One Hundreds” on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 6 p.m. at the same locale. This baseball-inspired flash mob of a 1970 piece demonstrates the artist’s theory that anyone can dance. Consisting of 11-second batches of movement easily done by anyone, the democratic dance will be taught and rehearsed in the afternoon and performed later that day.

Anyone can dance.

—Benn Widdey Culture Spot LA

The Bram Goldsmith Theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills 90210. Tickets are available for $49 to $129 and can be purchased at (310) 746-4000 or https://thewallis.org/showinfo.php?id=77 or in person at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. For more information about “The One Hundreds” or the 50th Anniversary Tour, visit www.thewallis.org.