ABT 85 - Twyla Tharp's Sextet

Sextet is a virtuosic pure-dance work for three couples. The choreography is fast, flamboyant and technically rigorous. The couples enter and exit, taking turns to perform the exacting steps and whiplash partnering. They move with the kind of abandon available only to the most proficient dancer.

The original cast of dancers: Allison Brown, Isabelle Guerin, Delphine Moussin Lionel Delanoe, Stephane Elizabe, Robert LaFosse

--Twyla Tharp Foundation

An excerpt from a 1990 studio showing. Performed by Kelly Cass, Susan Jaffe, Isabella Padovani, Guillaume Graffin, Keith Roberts and Damian Woetzel.

“When she is good, she is very, very good. ‘Sextet,’ Twyla Tharp’s latest premiere, is an inspired piece of work […] Sex is not what this shimmering successful, ‘Sextet’ for six dancers is about. But desire is very much present in the new piece. One could imagine invisible fans whirling overhead as the women dipped and arched in their partner’ embraces to an equally inspired original score by Bob Telson. Hand in hand, the choreography and the music add up to a potent atmosphere. 

"'Sextet’ is essentially a tour de race. It is marked by formidable dancing but masquerades as escapist entertainment. The choreography is complex, difficult to execute, crammed with accelerated steps and unconventional partnering.”—Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times, 1992