Yemayá

Malone (lifted) and company dancers in performance. Photo by Robbie Jack.

Company dancers in performance.

Premiere

Date

13 March 1998

Company

Tharp!

Venue

Memorial Auditorium – Stanford University

Location

Stanford, CA

Production

Choreographer

Twyla Tharp

Music by

Ruben Gonzalez,
Conjunto De Tambores Batá De Amado Diaz Alfonso,
Buena Vista Social Club

Costume Designers

Isabel Toledo,
Ruben Toledo

Dancers

Nigel Burley, Sandi Cooksey, Gabrielle Malone

with

Jennifer Howard, Jessica Lang
Jay Franke, Roger C. Jeffrey, Victor Quijada, Andrew Robinson

Number of Dancers

9

Dance Sections

I. La Engañadora

II. Agayú

III. Changó

IV. Yeggua

V. Obba

VI. Oyá

VII. Oggún

VIII. Yemayá

XI. Chan Chan

Runtime

00:22:44

Description

Yemayá portrays the seduction of a young man by the Cuban water goddess of the same name. Tharp employs a number of dramatic techniques to present the story – flashback scenes that morph into dream sequences, memories dancing as shadows on the back wall, solos that function as soliloquies.

The piece begins in a social club; the performers are paired up, dancing versions of the rhumba and cha-cha. Later, a male entourage partners Yemayá, lifting and rolling her above the stage. They are the waves on which she rides.