Twyla Tharp Dance: Bob Dylan Love Songs

As if to show that, at 76, she's still capable of surprises, a 76-year-old appears in a previously unannounced number. But "Twyla Tharp: Bob Dylan Love Songs" shows this legendary still at the top of her game.

For her engagement, which kicks off the fall season at the Joyce Theater, Tharp has returned to the music of Bob Dylan. Tharpe's interpretation of contemporary singer-songwriters has been a mixed bag: Her first outing with Dylan was a disaster; but "Movin' Out," a jukebox musical based on Billy Joel's songs, was a smash hit.

Even so, it took some moxie for Tharp to return to Dylan, now enshrined as Novel Laureate in literature. Fortunately, this time she gets it right.

"Dylan Love Songs" benefits by utilizing some of Dylan's most beautiful songs, including the early "I Want You," "Simple Twist of Fate," "Shelter From the Storm" and a really great version of "Jokerman."

Tharp deftly avoids the literal interpretation of lyrics that marred her Broadway outing of songs made famous by Frank Sinatra. The dancers in her company don't shy away from them, either.

Instead, there's a nice balance that brings to the fore the musicality while maintaining the push-pull, acceptance-rejection that is at the heart of so much dance -- and certainly Dylan's music.

Throughout, Tharp veteran John Selya weaves in and out of the dancers as a spectral presence. Dressed in a dark oversized fedora, long overcoat and flowing scarf, he could be a stand-in for Dylan himself. Or is he Death, the eternal stalker of lovers? Or just some a vagrant who wandered onto the stage?

It's greatly to Tharp's credit that the answer could any or none. Dylan songs is suffused with the same wonderful sense of ambiguity as Dylan's "love" songs -- ironic quotes because in Dylan's universe, nothing, especially love, is certain.

Tharp uses the duality, the irony, in Dylan's music to great effect. Her dancers alternately show affection and suspicion, community and alienation, joy and sorrow. That she manages to pull off choreography as complex as Dylan's music is a spectacular feat.

That she can appear as herself in the delightful "Entr'acte" shows how much she still understands and appreciates performance. The entire work doesn't make much sense -- at one point, she and Selya imitate chickens, for no apparent reason. But it's all the more fun for that. "Dylan Songs" makes enough sense for there to be one gorgeously nonsensical number in the evening.

By the time the inevitable finale arrived, where the dancers alternately leap across the stage, it feels eminently earned. I don't think I've enjoyed a dance troupe's interpretation of a rock singer-songwriter since New York City Ballet's 2002 tribute to George Harrison.

"Twyla Tharp Dance" runs through October 8 at the Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave. at 19th Street in Chelsea. For tickets or information, call 212-691-9740 or visit the Joyce's website