\n<\/p>\n
And then there is Memoli\u2019s material, which takes the dance back to a time when Tharp was in her 50s and improvising to explore classical technique, experimenting with movement \u2014 spatially, rhythmically and sequentially. She was reinventing: stripping out preparations, pairing a loose top of the body with a classically held center, and using torque as a way to allow for more suspension.<\/p>\n
When Memoli, who left the Graham company in 2024 to join Tharp\u2019s tour, first watched the videos, she said her first thought was, \u201cWow, how can she move like this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Memoli and Tharp worked together to turn steps from those improvisations into phrase material. Memoli said it was \u2014 and remains \u2014 a challenge for her to move with more weight, to drop the pelvis instead of lift it. Graham is modern and grounded, but Tharp\u2019s approach is different. One day, Tharp told Memoli to feel like a sponge full of water. \u201cShe was like, \u2018Feel heavy,\u2019\u201d Memoli said. \u201cWhen I dance Graham, I never feel heavy. Never<\/em>. She worked a lot on my ankles and my feet.\u201d<\/p>\n She added, \u201cI learned that sometimes my impulse needs to start from my imagination and not from my body.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of going for everything 100 percent, she has learned to pull her focus inward. \u201cSomething that she always tell me is: \u2018Don\u2019t perform. Let the audience come to you. They will come. Trust it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Dreamier than \u201cDiabelli,\u201d \u201cSlacktide\u201d <\/span>takes place in an in-between world that emphasizes fluidity. \u201cSlacktide,\u201d also set to Glass, doesn\u2019t have the punch of \u201cIn the Upper Room\u201d; instead it embraces the idea of flow and, again, transformation. It\u2019s named after the time when the tide seems to stand still before reversing, the moment when, as Tharp said, the out becomes the in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n