Inspired in part by "A Musical Offering" by Johann Sebastian Bach, this dance trio represents the start of a new direction in the Tharpian canon. Since its creation, it has become a Tharp classic, in which the rigorously plotted choreography draws audiences inside its intriguing workings. The Fugue's primary phrase of movement is a 20-count theme that one, two and/or three of its dancers variously execute by way of reversals, inversions, and resequencings, all shaded by individually graded "attacks and coordinations." The original, female cast presented one woman as bass, one as alto, and another as soprano, in choreographic tone. Subsequently, all-male or mixed casts make for similarly distinct "voices." Actual tones accompany the dance as vivid pulse because of the "internal accompaniment" dramatically created by The Fugue's footfalls on an electronically amplified
stage.

Premiered University of Massachussets, Amherst