Choroegraphic legend Twyla Tharp comes to Van Wezel

Two of the most important figures in the past half-century of dance are coming to Sarasota in the coming weeks. Or at least their dances and dancers are.

The Sarasota Ballet will bring the Paul Taylor Dance Company to the FSU Center for the Performing Arts Feb. 24-27, but you don’t have to wait even that long to see the work of one of the most awe-inspiring choreographers in the world.

Twyla Tharp is celebrating her 50th anniversary in the art of dance, and her dancers will be at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on Wednesday.

The program includes new works and classics. It begins with “Preludes and Fugues,” a 2015 work for 12 dancers set to J.S. Bach’s encyclopedic “The Well-Tempered Clavier.”

Closing the program is Tharp’s “Nine Sinatra Songs” from 1982, with music by Frank Sinatra and costumes by Oscar de la Renta. The work presents a glamorous portrait of seven couples that traces the arc of romantic relationships.

Tharp is known for imagination and technique as much as for innovation. In the 1970s, she set a ballet to music by the Beach Boys. She has collaborated with artists as diverse as David Byrne and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and she choreographed “Movin’ Out,” the Broadway hit dance musical set to music by Billy Joel, and films including “Amadeus” and “Ragtime.”

Details: 8 p.m. Feb. 15, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. $46. $56, $66, $76. 941-953-3368, vanwezel.org.

This story was originally published February 8, 2017 at 6:22 PM with the headline "Choroegraphic legend Twyla Tharp comes to Van Wezel."