COME FLY AWAY KEITH ROBERTS AND KARINE PLANTADIT
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
Published: May 16, 2010
It's not easy to choose a single moment of chemical connection from Twyla Tharp's swinging celebration of Frank Sinatra's music, ''Come Fly Away.'' Ms. Tharp uses a dance vocabulary mixing ballroom and ballet to explore so many facets of the man-woman thing that to select a single pas de deux seems almost arbitrary. Still, for sheer sizzle nothing beats the tempestuous duel performed by Karine Plantadit and Keith Roberts, above, to Sinatra's recording of ''That's Life,'' a defiant anthem about soldiering on in the face of adversity.
That erotic attraction can be a fierce adversary is illustrated with electrifying aplomb by these two remarkable dancers in a breathtaking duet that begins at high intensity and builds from there. He's a tough guy who doesn't want to acknowledge the power this particular woman holds over him. She likes to play the field and doesn't care that he's singled her out for attention. But their limbs don't seem to want to obey their wills and keep entangling themselves in ways that appear to defy the limits of human physics. Ms. Tharp's intricately choreographed battle for supremacy ends in a draw but not before both the magnificently limber Ms. Plantadit and the commanding Mr. Roberts have demonstrated how the powerful connection between two performers can ignite a stage without a word being spoken. CHARLES ISHERWOOD
PHOTO (PHOTOGRAPH BY SARA KRULWICH/THE NEW YORK TIMES)