Nine Sinatra Songs

Choreography

Staging

Shelley Washington

Scenic Design

Lighting Design

Costume Design

Oscar de la Renta

Duration

30 minutes

Cast

14 dancers

Premiere

October 15, 1982
Twyla Tharp Dance

PNB Premiere

February 2, 2006

Music

Frank Sinatra
(“Softly As I Leave You,” “Strangers in the Night,” “One For My Baby (And One More For the Road),” “Somethin’ Stupid,” “All the Way,” “Forget Domani,” “That’s Life,” “My Way”)

For Rhoda and Jerry Oster – Twyla Tharp

With appreciation to Sinatra Enterprises and The Frank Sinatra Foundation

Choreographed in 1982, Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs has become a popular classic, presenting its view of 1950’s social dancing through the nostalgic but sharpened eyes of the 1980s. Oscar de la Renta’s dresses and tuxedos flash with a similar double edge of past and present eras. Choreographing to classic Sinatra—including “One for My Baby,” “Strangers in the Night,” and “My Way”—Tharp upscales traditional ballroom dancing with the active participation from both dance partners in styles ranging from tango to flamenco to exhibition disco.

Notes compiled by Doug Fullington.