The Catherine Wheel The Catherine Wheel

The Catherine Wheel

Company dancers silhouetted in performance. Photo by Martha Swope.

Excerpt from The Catherine Wheel.

Young, Colton, Malashock, Rudner, Whitener and Way (in background) in dress rehearsal. Photo by Martha Swope.

Whitener, Uchida (obscured), Colton, Kellogg, Kurshals and Washington in dress rehearsal. Photo by Martha Swope.

Premiere

  • Date

    22 September 1981

  • Company

    Twyla Tharp Dance

  • Location

    New York, NY

Production

  • Choreographer

    Twyla Tharp

  • Composer

    David Byrne (with Brian Eno and John Chernoff)

  • Lighting Designer

    Jennifer Tipton

  • Costume and Scenic Designer

    Santo Loquasto

Dancers

 

Ensemble
Shelley Freydont, Mary Ann Kellogg, Barbara Hoon
Richard Colton, John Malashock, William Whitener, Keith Young

 

  • Number of Dancers

    15

Dance sections

I. Disrupting The Peace 

Colton, Whitener, Malashock, Kellogg, Freydont, Hoon and Rudner

II. Presenting The Company

Rudner;

Kurshals, Glasner, Washington;

Carrafa, Way, Uchida, Rawe;

Malashock, Whitener, Young, Kellogg, Colton, Freydont

III. Presenting The Family

Rawe, Way, Kurshals, Glasner, Uchida, Washington

IV. First Family Fuss

Rawe, Way, Kurshals, Glasner, Uchida, Washington, Carrafa

V. Scolding The Family

Rudner and Malashock, Freydont, Whitener, Kellogg, Hoon

VI. The Tap Lesson

Way, Kurshals, Glasner, Rawe, Uchida, Washington, Carrafa

VII. Lamenting The Family

Rudner and Freydont, Whitener, Malashock, Kellogg, Glasner, Colton, Young

VIII. The Family Goes to Town

Way, Kurshals, Glasner, Carrafa and the Chorus

IX. Expelling the Leader

Rudner and Whitener, Freydont, Malashock, Colton, Young, Kellogg.

X. The Poet’s Decline

Carrafa and Uchida, Way, Glasner;

Rawe, Way;

Carrafa, Uchida;

Carrafa, Way, Rawe, Washington

XI. Ethiopia

Washington and Full Cast

XII. Combat

Rawe, Way, Kurshals, Uchida, Glasner, Washington, Carrafa

XIII. Brooms

Whitener Malashock, Colton, Young, Kellogg, Freydont and Way

XIV. The Family Loop

Rawe, Way, Kurshals, Glasner

XV. The Leader Repents

Rudner and Colton, Whitener, Malashock, Young

XVI. Equilibrium Restored

Rudner and Way, Colton, Kellogg, Rawe, Kurshals, Glasner, Freydont, Young, Malashock, Whitener

XVII. The Golden Section

Full Cast

  • Runtime

    01:12:33

Description

The Catherine Wheel takes its title from a torture device used in the martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. This device has lent its name to a number of familiar things over time – a spinning firework, a crochet pattern, a flower. Tharp’s second Broadway production operates within a world of plurality wherein an archetypal family faces the implosive forces of domestic squabbles and abuse.

 

Tharp employs another reoccurring symbol with connotations that are at once beautiful and ominous: the pineapple, which one dancer hands to another, is a historic icon of home and hospitality; however, the shape also recalls the Mk2 hand grenades of World War II, nicknamed “pineapple grenades.”

 

The first half of The Catherine Wheel explores the nature of power as destructive and explosive, whereas in the final section power becomes a constructive force. The dramatic tension between greeting and aggression, implosion and explosion builds until it finally erupts in the athletic, pure-dance finale.

 

The final section The Golden Section (1983) was later performed as a stand-alone piece.

 

Past Performances

Twyla Tharp Dance

The Catherine Wheel (premiere) | Twyla Tharp Dance

Winter Garden Theatre

New York, NY

September 22 1981 Premiere

  • 1981