How Tharp's moves met Elfman's music

NEW YORK — AN EXPANSIVE new work from one of the world's leading choreographers, set to an original score by a high-profile composer making his first foray into the world of dance -- this is hardly American Ballet Theatre's usual fare these days. The multi-part programs that once were the troupe's standard offerings have given way for the most part to full-evening narrative works, especially for touring engagements, as presenters prefer to play things safe.

But one of the company's most ambitious new ventures, Twyla Tharp's "Rabbit and Rogue," with a score by Danny Elfman, is not only beginning six performances at the Orange County Performing Artscenter on Wednesday but was also co-commissioned by the venue.

The 45-minute work, for a cast of 22, received decidedly mixed reviews after its premiere in New York in June. But it's undeniably big and bold and filled with dense movement. The five sections of Elfman's score specifically allude to such disparate musical sources as ragtime and gamelan, but his subtly shifting, propulsive music also has moments evocative of Lou Harrison, Darius Milhaud, raucous circusy sounds and shimmering Minimalism.

Tharp, who last choreographed for ballet companies in 2000, has returned to ballet in a big way this year. In March, Miami City Ballet premiered her "Nightspot," to a commissioned score by Elvis Costello. "Rabbit and Rogue" followed, and these days she is in Seattle working on a pair of premieres for an all-Tharp program by Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Although she formed a chamber-sized touring company in 2000 for which she made several bracing new works -- right after creating imposing ballets to Beethoven (for New York City Ballet) and Brahms (for ABT) -- Tharp soon went in a very different direction, collaborating with two of the foremost living singer-songwriters on Broadway projects that stretched the definition of a musical. "Movin' Out," set to Billy Joel songs, was a triumph; "The Times They Are A-Changin'," to Bob Dylan, less so.

In 2006 -- around the time the latter show was making its move from San Diego, where it originated, to Broadway -- Elfman was approached by ABT about the idea of a commissioned score. "I'm not well versed in contemporary choreography, but they invited me to their gala in New York that fall, and Twyla's 'In the Upper Room' was fresh in my mind when they asked me which choreographer I'd like to work with," the former frontman of the rock group Oingo Boingo and composer of scores for such films as "Spider-Man" and the original "Batman" recalled recently by phone from his Los Angeles office. But he said consternation greeted his mention of Tharp's name. He was told how difficult a Tharp collaboration would be, how officials doubted she'd be interested. Back in L.A. a few days later, though, he got a call: Tharp was very interested. Could he return to New York for a meeting?