With "Come Fly Away," choreographer Twyla Tharp continues her journey back in time and finds another iconic singer around whom to wrap her signature style.

Tharp struck gold with the post-1975 music of Billy Joel in "Movin' Out," and then struck out when she dug back to the 60's to try to find a dance beat in Bob Dylan.

"Come Fly Away" puts Tharp in the 40s and 50s, where she finds a crackling rhythm in the stylish licks of Mr. Frank Sinatra. The show, which opened Tuesday at the Ordway Center, doesn't have the long-form narrative that made "Movin' Out" successful, but it has enough jazz to make a fellow yearn for that black-and-white era defined by Manhattan, martinis and smoky nightclubs.

Tharp has used Sinatra as a medium previously, with a couple of short pieces in the early 1980s. Here, with a 14-piece band supporting Sir Francis's recorded vocals (there are a couple of instrumentals in the 26-song lineup), Tharp puts four couples into a club and lets them dance through the push and pull of flirty love. Each couple has a thin dramatic arc but brother, if you're looking for narrative, you're missing the whole Clyde.

This is a very sexy piece of work. Shirts and pants get tossed aside to reveal men with sweaty chests, square jaws and broad shoulders; The women, in their little cocktail dresses and high heels, are impossibly leggy and glammed to the nines. By the time we get to the reprise of "Makin' Whoopee," there is some dirty dancing. Dirty in a good way.

Tharp uses 14 dancers. They alternate performances as the couples, and then six dance in the ensemble. Taking nothing from Tuesday's lineup, it doesn't appear to matter who is in the catbird seat.

Tharp finds a different personality in her vigorously physical and passionate choreography. Matthew Stockwell Dibble and Amy Ruggiero brought comic energy to "Yes Sir, That's My Baby." Ron Todorowski and Mallauri Esquibel play off shy hints in "Let's Fall in Love" and again in "You Make Me Feel So Young."

John Selya and Tanairi Sade Vazquez glimmered just a bit brighter than the others with their elegance on "Witchcraft" and "Teach Me Tonight."

At 80 minutes, "Come Fly Away" goes down smoothly without a hint of aftertaste. As the Chairman himself might have said, it's a gas.