Quotes by Twyla Tharp

About Twyla Tharp:

Twyla Tharp is 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.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

You don’t get lucky without preparation, and there’s no sense in being prepared if you’re not open to the possibility of a glorious accident.

Twyla Tharp

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.

Twyla Tharp

When you're in a rut, you have to question everything except your ability to get out of it.

Twyla Tharp

This is the strange thing: Dancers don't age.

Twyla Tharp

'The Creative Habit' is basically about how you work alone, how you survive as a solitary artist. 'The Collaborative Habit' is obviously about surviving with other people.

Twyla Tharp

I always find that the best collaborations are when you work with people that know what they're doing, and you leave them alone to do it.

Twyla Tharp

I feel I can handle the architecture of dance as well as anybody.

Twyla Tharp

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

Twyla Tharp

I don't mean this, but I'm going to say it anyway. I don't really think of pop art and serious art as being that far apart.

Twyla Tharp

I'm not one who divides music, dance or art into various categories. Either something works, or it doesn't.

Twyla Tharp

Dance is the most fundamental of all art forms.

Twyla Tharp

If you're speaking of love, you really must include the element of uncertainty - and perhaps it's best approached as the art of constant maintenance.

Twyla Tharp

When I was a kid, toe dancing and toe shoes had a meaning in our culture as a serious kind of art.

Twyla Tharp

I think that anyone who's pushed to do the very best that they can is privileged. It's a luxury.

Twyla Tharp

Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.

Twyla Tharp

No artist is well served in thinking what will happen to their works. The best one can hope is that they'll enter the mainstream, and people will pull bits and pieces from them.

Twyla Tharp

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.

Twyla Tharp

Do I watch dancers as people? Yes, absolutely. Do I watch really good dancers for specifically who they are? Absolutely, because how they move best and how they look best is going to be most familiar to them, and not necessarily to me.

Twyla Tharp

Work is work; wherever I'm working, I do the best I can. If the actual dollars come from investors as opposed to taxpayers and patrons, what's the difference?

Twyla Tharp

My father always said, 'I don't care if you're a ditch digger, as long as you're the best ditch digger in the world.'

Twyla Tharp

Author Bio

  • NameTwyla Tharp
  • DescriptionAmerican choreographer
  • BornJuly 1, 1941
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionChoreographer; Writer; Dancer
  • AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship; MacArthur Fellows Program; National Medal Of Arts; Emmy Award