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Twyla Tharp leads a rehearsal for "The Princess & the Goblin" with her signature verve.

Once Upon a Time

by Bret Love | Jezebel magazine | February 6, 2012

While other ballet companies were stuck in traditional ruts, legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp drew from jazz and contemporary pop music to create crossover classics that have resonated with mainstream audiences since the 1960s. Her 1973 production, Deuce Coupe, had the Joffrey Ballet dancing to the Beach Boys; 2002’s 10-time Tony Award-winning Movin’ Out paired the music of Billy Joel with a story of Long Island life during the Vietnam War; and Come Fly Away (originally staged at the Alliance Theatre) brought the timeless tunes of Frank Sinatra to Broadway in 2010.

Tharp is now working with the Atlanta Ballet in conjunction with Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet on the world premiere production of her latest work, The Princess & the Goblin, based on the classic fairy tale by author George MacDonald and running at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre Feb. 10-19. Here, she keeps us on our toes.

What attracted you to this story?
Freedom. I think the release from oppression to freedom—which happens within the story’s goblin world—is a brilliant metaphor. Irene is one of the earliest female heroes in Western literature.

How does this story fit into the pantheon of fairy tale princesses?
Irene is a working-class girl. She may be called a princess, but she’s got to get out the shovel and get down there and do the job. Those who are looking for the Disney fairy tale princesses who wait for the prince’s kiss in their sleep aren’t going to find it here. They’re going to discover a princess who comes in with the resources to do a job and to find reward and success in maximizing her assets.

In an age of instant and endless entertainment, how do you attract new audiences to the ballet?
That’s an interesting question. I grew up working in my parents’ drive-in theater, where I gained a sense of who an audience is. If a movie was to be successful, it had to have something for everyone. Now, we have become very divided in our interests. The challenge for this ballet is to find a group that can enjoy a shared experience, despite their different ages and backgrounds. We sometimes think that fairy tales are for children, but I think they are for the child, idealist and optimist in all of us.

What made the Atlanta Ballet the right company for this premiere?
As the artistic director, John McFall has a special sense of his company and its place in the community. He is not possessive about his art, either. When I first visited Atlanta and went to the studios, I saw a company that had what it needed. There was a desire in the community to put its money where its mouth is: They were really shoulder to the wheel. I thought, ‘OK, these folks are serious.’

You’re known for pushing the creative envelope of dance. How does The Princess & the Goblin continue that legacy?
One of the major challenges in dance is confronting the long-form 19th-century narrative. The Princess & the Goblin is a humble effort to address that legacy. Our version is post-Freudian. The 19th-century ballets had direct access to the fairy tales, and they were taken at face value. But Freud denounced their psychological ramifications. In my opinion, Freud destroyed the fairy tale. This is an attempt to re-digest those wonderful, not-so-simple tales and, in a way, step over Freud’s dead body and get on with it. atlantaballet.com