Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharpis an American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works in New York City. In 1966, she formed her own company Twyla Tharp Dance. Her work often utilizes classical music, jazz, and contemporary pop music...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDancer
Date of Birth1 July 1941
CityPortland, IN
CountryUnited States of America
teaching years able
I was privileged to be able to study a year with Martha Graham, the last year she was teaching.
morning jobs phones
After so many years, I've learned that being creative is a full-time job with its own daily patterns. That's why writers, for example, like to establish routines for themselves. The most productive ones get started early in the morning, when the world is quiet, the phones aren't ringing, and their minds are rested, alert, and not yet polluted by other people's words.
mother battle assertiveness
when the time came I would do battle with my mother for the right to sit at the center of my own life.
important
I never studied with Balanchine, but his work was very important to me.
creativity dark sight
The first steps of a creative act are like groping in the dark: random and chaotic, feverish and fearful, a lot of busy-ness with no apparent or definable end in sight.
ideas littles bigs
Without the little ideas, there are no big ideas.
opposites generosity community
Generosity is luck going in the opposite direction, away from you. If you're generous to someone, if you do something to help him out, you are in effect making him lucky. This is important. It's like inviting yourself into a community of good fortune.
gum half hours
You can keep on chewing gum for ten hours, but after about a minute and a half you've got all the good out of it.
dance children dancer
dancers are allowed, indeed encouraged, to remain children forever ...
dance art stepchild
Dance is the stepchild of the arts.
dance art dancing
when dancing is right, the movement possesss a logic common to us all, an inevitability that takes it beyond the personal and egocentric and makes of it classical art.
dance challenges culture
I have always felt one of the things dance should do - its business being so clearly physical - is challenge the culture's gender stereotypes.
mean dancing intimidating
I have not wanted to intimidate audiences. I have not wanted my dancing to be an elitist form. That doesn't mean I haven't wanted it to be excellent.
dance workout morning
I repeat the wake-up, the workout, the quick shower, the breakfast of three hard-boiled egg whites and a cup of coffee, the hour to make my morning calls and deal with correspondence, the two hours of stretching and working out ideas by myself in the studio ... That's my day, every day. A dancer's life is all about repetition.