Twyla Tharp
31 quotes
Biography
Twyla Tharp is an American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works in New York City. In 1965 she formed the company Twyla Tharp Dance, which merged with American Ballet Theatre in 1988.
"I think a sense of humor will help get a girl out of a dark place."
"Dance is the most fundamental of all art forms."
"Life is about moving, it’s about change. And when things stop doing that they’re dead."
"Reading, conversation, environment, culture, heroes, mentors, nature – all are lottery tickets for creativity. Scratch away at them and you’ll find out how big a prize you’ve won."
"The only thing I fear more than change is no change. The business of being static makes me nuts."
"Judgment is not my business. Existing is my business."
"The only thing I fear more than change is no change. The business of being static makes me nuts."
"My mother was a dominant force in my life. She had a very specific idea about education, which was: you should know everything about everything. It was quite simple. There was no exclusivity, and there really was no judgment."
"The formal education that I received made little sense to me."
"Optimism with some experience behind it is much more energizing than plain old experience with a certain degree of cynicism."
"My mother was the first woman in the county in Indiana where we were born, in Jay County, to have a college degree. She was educated as a pianist and she wanted to concertize, but when the war came she was married, had a family, so she started teaching."
"The only thing I fear more than change is no change. The business of being static makes me nuts."
"I thought I had to make an impact on history. I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission. Posterity deals with us however it sees fit. But I gave it 20 years of my best shot."
"In terms of individuals who actually inspired me, very few of the academic people that I had access to had that power over me. Maybe it's simply because I wasn't that committed to geometry."
"My mother was the first woman in the county in Indiana where we were born, in Jay County, to have a college degree. She was educated as a pianist and she wanted to concertize, but when the war came she was married, had a family, so she started teaching."
"Creativity is an act of defiance."
"If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge."
"In dreams, anything can be anything, and everybody can do. We can fly, we can turn upside down, we can transform into anything."
"Ultimately there is no such thing as failure. There are lessons learned in different ways."
"Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits."
"To survive, you've got to keep wheedling your way. You can't just sit there and fight against odds when it's not going to work. You have to turn a corner, dig a hole, go through a tunnel - and find a way to keep moving."
"This is the strange thing: Dancers don't age."
"People often say to me, 'I don't know anything about dance.' I say, 'Stop. You got up this morning, and you're walking. You are an expert.'"
"What we want from modern dance is courage and audacity."
"Schubert had arguably the same melodic gift as Mozart, but even less support. He didn't have the early exposure, never got to travel anywhere, and yet generated and amassed a body of work that grew and developed and is very profound."