Nine Sinatra Songs

Carla Körbes and Jeffrey Stanton in
Nine Sinatra Songs. Photo © Angela Sterling

Music: Songs sung by 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”)
Choreography: Twyla Tharp
Staging: Shelley Washington
Original Costume Design: Oscar de la Renta
Original Scenic Design: Santo Loquasto
Original Lighting Design: Jennifer Tipton
Duration: 28 minutes
Premiere: October 14, 1982; Twyla Tharp Dance, Vancouver, British Columbia
Pacific Northwest Ballet Premiere: February 2, 2006

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 of the female dancer in styles ranging from tango to flamenco to exhibition disco.

Recommended Listening:
The Very Best of Frank Sinatra, Warner Bros, 1997

Notes compiled by Doug Fullington.