An evening-long collaborative work between Tharp and David Byrne (of The
Talking Heads), The Catherine Wheel is a continuous piece of dance/theater
that makes its way toward a fireworklike finale [see: The Golden Section]
through episodes presenting the disintegration of the nuclear family, while
ruminating on the detonation of nuclear weapons. The dance ensemble becomes
a cast of specifically defined characters: The Leader and The Chorus; The
Mother; The Father; The Sister; The Brother; The Maid; The Pet; and The
Poet. A pineapple prop plays a part as its natural self and as its symbolic
self, as a nickname for explosive devices. The seventeen dance sections,
each with its own appropriate title, mimetic ingredients, and choreographic
textures ("Disrupting the Peace," "Equilibrium Restored," for example) work
alongside Byrne's twenty-three musical selections ("His Wife Refused,"
"Dense Beasts," for example). Structurally the dance momentum evolves
classically: development, climax, denouement and apotheosis. Enacted family
squabbles, domestic scenes and poetic intrigue mesh into and out of dance
sequences that eventually segue into the work's "pure dance" resolution,
Tharp's "Golden Section" to Byrne's "Five Golden Sections," "What a Day That
Was," "Big Blue Plymouth," and "Light Bath." This culminating, celebrational
number is flushed with rushing and released energy that stands in stark
contrast to the "heavier" mood, emotionally, physically, and scenically,
that gives way to it.