Happily Ever After

The Joffrey Ballet:
Ann Marie DeAngelo, Cynthia Anderson, Carol Messmer, Beatriz Rodriguez

Russell Sutlzbach, Gary Chryst, Richard Colton, Jerel Hilding, William Whitener

Twyla Tharp Dance:
Tom Rawe, Christine Uchida, Shelley Washington, Jennifer Way, Rose Marie Wright

I. Texas Quickstep, Fifty Year Ago Waltz, Rat Cheese Under the Hill, Cacklin’ Hen and Rooster Too, Katy Did, Took My Gal A-Walkin’, Fresno Blues, Alabama Jubilee
Rawe, Way, Washington, Uchida

II. Billy In the Low Ground
DeAngelo

III. I’m Sad and Blue, A Corn Licker Still in Georgia, Good Bye Little Bonnie, Alabama Jubilee
Anderson, Messmer, Rodriguez, Sultzbach

Lost Child
Rawe, Way, Washington, Uchida

Reprise
Anderson, Messmer, Rodriguez, Sultzback

IV. Cacklin’ Hen and Rooster Too
Wright, Chryst, Colton, Hilding, Rawe, Whitener

Happily Ever After was the second work to merge Tharp’s company with The Joffrey Ballet. Whereas Deuce Coupe (1973) meshed the groups into a single cast, Happily Ever After presented each company separately. The opening section was performed by Tharp dancers; the following by Joffrey. The two companies performed together only once, in the fourth and final section.

Set to a suite of bluegrass songs, this work expands the energetic partnering of Country Dances (1976), while incorporating unison group phrases and a long female solo.

From the original program: “Rose Marie Wright, Tom Rawe, Jennifer Way, Shelley Washington and Christine Uchida are making a guest appearance through the courtesy of the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation Inc.

Twyla Tharp, Artistic Director
Rhoda Grauer, Executive Director.”