Last year, Twyla Tharp immersed herself in the work of the French writer and philosopher Albert Camus, namely “The Plague.” World events were on her mind, and his 1947 novel about a pandemic in Algeria struck a chord.
In her new full-length work, an outdoor dance-and-musical hybrid, “How Long Blues,” named after a Leroy Carr song, Tharp finds inspiration in that writing and also in American jazz.
It reminds Tharp a little of performing at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park in 1971, when she presented the premiere of “Eight Jelly Rolls.” A couple of performances “had puddles onstage,” she said.
But the Little Island stage, while also outdoors, is not that.
Tharp, who directed, choreographed and conceived “How Long Blues,” which runs June 1 through 23, regards the proscenium as a wonderful thing.
Persons:
Twyla Tharp, Albert Camus, ”, Leroy Carr, Tharp, Bone Burnett, David Mansfield, “, “ They’ve
Locations:
Algeria, Little, Manhattan, Hudson, Central Park, New York