Cornbread

Peck and Fairchild performing with Carolina Chocolate Drops in 2014. Photo by Andrea Mohin.

Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild perform with the Caroline Chocolate Drops at BAM.

Peck and Fairchild performing with the Caroline Chocolate Drops in 2014. Photo by Rahav Segev.

Peck and Fairchild at the Caroline Chocolate Drops/Twyla Tharp BAM show. Photo by Rahav Segev.

Left to right: Rhiannon Giddens, Rowan Corbett, Hubby Jenkins, Twyla Tharp, Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild during final bows at the Carolina Chocolate Drops/Twyla Tharp BAM show. Photo by Rahav Segev.

Left to right: Robert Fairchild, Malcolm Parson, Rowan Corbett, Rhiannon Giddens, Twyla Tharp, Hubby Jenkins, and Tiler Peck backstage.

Roman Mejia and Tiler Peck performing at New York City Center as part of the 2021 “Twyla Now” program. Photo by Paula Lobo.

Premiere

Date

10 April 2014

Company

Twyla Tharp Dance

Venue

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Location

Brooklyn, NY

Production

Choreographer

Twyla Tharp

Composer

Rhiannon Giddens

Music by

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Live Musicians

Rhiannon Giddens (lead vocalist/strings),

Hubby Jenkins (multi-instrumentalist),

Rowan Corbett (multi-instrumentalist),

Malcolm Parson (cellist)

Lighting Designer

2021 re-staging: James F. Ingalls

Costume Designer

Norma Kamali,

2021 re-staging: Santo Loquasto

Dancers

Robert Fairchild and Tiler Peck

Number of Dancers

2

Runtime

00:12:52

Description

Cornbread is a suite of dances set to five songs by Rhiannon Giddens and featuring a resettlement of a classical technique into the folk tradition.

Cornbread premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music during an evening length performance by the Carolina Chocolate Drops, as part of a larger series celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Nonesuch Records. The duet was later re-staged on Roman Mejia and Tiler Peck to recorded music, with lighting by James F. Ingalls and new costumes by Santo Loquasto, for the 2021 Twyla Now program at New York City Center.

From the 2021 New York City Center program: “‘TWYLA NOW opens with Cornbread, set to music by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Former Chocolate Drop Rhiannon Giddens is a kindred spirit, another artist-historian of the American tradition, known for excavating and emphasizing African influence on American roots music. Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia’s duet, essentially a tarantella, puts a vernacular drawl on classical ballet forms.’ – Written by Jamie Fisher”