Despite two decades of dance training, most of my context for Twyla Tharp’s Diamond Jubilee at Hancher last Wednesday night came courtesy of an undergraduate dance history class on the choreographer and her eponymous company. That she was part of my dance curriculum speaks to how well known Tharp is in American modern dance, known for blending ballet lines, goofy humor and contemporary styles into her work.

According to the program, Tharp has choreographed 169 pieces, including a Broadway musical and two figure-skating routines (which are disappointingly not on YouTube; I checked). Her work has been in the repertory of some of the biggest dance companies in the country.

Wednesday’s bill featured Diabelli — co-commissioned by Hancher in 1998, it premiered in the pre-flood auditorium the follow year — and SLACKTIDE, a new piece created in 2024 by Tharp, who is now an octogenarian. The juxtaposition of these two works made decades apart sparked a conversation between Tharp’s past and present, in both of which Iowa City has played a part.

The curtain opened for Diabelli to reveal the crisp box of the stage framed in black velvet. It was clear you were at a theater to watch a dance performance: no story line, no distracting lighting design, just 10 dancers on stage, dressed identically, with a mission to do all the steps, on the music.

What captivated me the most was the technique of the dancers, half of them graduates of Julliard, and the surprisingly tricky ballet vocabulary needed to interpret one of the “pioneers of American modern dance.” I could name many steps: grand jete, battement, double pirouette and then suddenly I couldn’t, as the steps became quirky and deadpan. There was a log roll, a game of leapfrog, a spank and mimed fight. Moments of laughter can be too rare in dance, and the levity felt refreshing. The choreography made sense of Beethoven’s nonsensical tempo changes and had the dancers entering and exiting backwards, forwards and at a speed I don’t think I could manage.

Tharp’s signature wit and precision shone through her variations of his variations, though maybe a few too many of them.

Twenty-six years separate Diabelli and the second piece of the program, SLACKTIDE, which had its world premiere just the week before at Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota. (The evening was a stop on Tharp’s Diamond Jubilee tour, an appropriately named coast-to-coast 60th anniversary tour.) Placing these two pieces next to each other raised the question of how (or if) Tharp’s age had changed her very physically demanding choreography, which is a consideration unique to aging in dance.

Dancers wove in and out of duets and trios, sometimes grooving alone and sometimes in unison. It was still playful; it still had the ballet line but the whole was more chaotic, less formal and precisely configured than Diabelli. Her signature themes of repetition and pattern remained true, albeit in a looser way that blurred the lines even more between capital “D” Dance and human movement. It seemed that the dancers had more of a say in the choreography, each bringing their own groove to a phrase. Conceptually, it was disappointing that the choreography along with the costumes and lighting ignored the world that the score, a rendition of Phillip Glass’ “Aguas da Amazonia,” was obviously invoking in the mind. This score was provided by returning Hancher favorites Third Coast Percussion of Chicago.

Third Coast’s drums and lyrical flute called up a magical jungle world while the dancers looked to be dressed for a game of pick-up basketball in unremarkable mismatched blacks. While it was satisfying to be aware I was sitting in a theater during the first piece, such evocative music called for something more theatrical for the second. What stood out positively was the impressive virtuosity of the dancers and one particularly brilliant moment when all the dancers took a pause, mid-lift, as the music continued unbothered from the pit.

Witnessing the return of a piece of Hancher’s history was exciting for a Wednesday night, and Iowa City dance enthusiasts should be honored to be a part of its continuation.

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