Choreographer: Twyla Tharp

Music: Various compositions sung by Frank Sinatra

Costumes: Oscar de la Renta

Set Design: Santo Loquasto

Lighting: Jennifer Tipton

World Premiere: Twyla Tharp Dance Company, October 14, 1982

PBT Performance Date: March 2006

Program Notes (from PBT playbill, 2006; Notes courtesy of Twyla Tharp Dance, adapted by Doug Fullington, Pacific Northwest Ballet, 2005)

Following the workings of her Sinatra-inspired duo, Once More Frank, and in the wake of her investigation of the methods of turn-of-the-century exhibition/ballroom dancing for the movie Ragtime, Twyla Tharp created her Nine Sinatra Songs in 1982. The work has become a popular classic, presenting its view of 1950s social dancing through the nostalgic and yet sharpened eyes of the 1980s. Oscar de la Renta's dresses and tuxedos flash with a similar double edge of past and present ages. Each of the songs Tharp has chosen has its own musical and dance/theater character. Her choreography reinforces traditional ballroom dancing, but upscales it with the active participation of the female dancer. The opening, "Softly, As I Leave You," is based on the theme of infatuation. A tango-flavored "Strangers in the Night" is followed by "One For My Baby," featuring a couple in late-night, knowing rapport. After "My Way" re-gathers the first three couples, a fourth lends tart, comic relief with "Somethin' Stupid." Unhurried and subtle glamour bathes "All the Way," while "Forget Domani" is true a showpiece. This duo plays it straight, fast, front and center, in the manner of actual ballroom competition entrants. The capstone couple is engrossed in a battle of wits and maneuvers. Dancing to "That's Life," they engage in fast and furious one-upmanship. The final swell, for all couples, is a later version of "My Way."