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

The content and thematic materials of dance is, of itself, like boxing. You play tennis and baseball. But boxing is not a sport you play: you stand up and do it.

Twyla Tharp

The ultimate point of a piece for me is that it drives the next one. Does it open new doors? That's the success of a piece.

Twyla Tharp

A commission is an invitation to fall in love.

Twyla Tharp

What I do remember is visualization of the sound of music, seeing bodies in movement in relation to how music sounded, because my mother practiced at the keyboard a lot and I also went to her lessons. As a two year old, three year old I remember seei...

Twyla Tharp

We don't need to illustrate music; music illustrates itself.

Twyla Tharp

I have a sort of tactility about music. I go into record stores and just run my fingers over it, the spines.

Twyla Tharp

What is music about? You can't listen to one era, one composer, and know what music is about.

Twyla Tharp

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.'

Twyla Tharp

I always tell students that you've got to be practical. You do not need a dream. You need a purpose, something you can wake up to in the morning when the dream is dissipated.

Twyla Tharp

The only way to know the truth of a movement is to do it on your own body.

Twyla Tharp

A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I'm beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.

Twyla Tharp

I started formal piano training when I was 4. From there I had little violas, and I had dancing lessons of every sort and description, and painting lessons. I had German. And shorthand.

Twyla Tharp

I think people want very much to simplify their lives enough so that they can control the things that make it possible to sleep at night.

Twyla Tharp

Playwrights have texts, composers have scores, painters and sculptors have the residue of those activities, and dance is traditionally an ephemeral, effervescent, here-today-gone-tomorrow kind of thing.

Twyla Tharp

I do at least 75 push-ups a day.

Twyla Tharp

Nothing is more terrifying to me, really, than the status quo. I'll make mistakes before I keep doing something the same way.

Twyla Tharp

I am still pushing the edge of what my body can do.

Twyla Tharp

The ballet needs to tell its own story in such a way it can be received without having to be translated into language.

Twyla Tharp

In the not-for-profit world, there can be wastefulness because there's not the desperate urgency of when you're on a clock.

Twyla Tharp

I look for dancers who have all the technique in the world. But they must be dancers who are open-minded, who are willing to forget that they know anything. They also have to be gorgeous; they must have a clear image of themselves and strong personal...

Twyla Tharp

You can only generate ideas when you put pencil to paper, brush to canvas... when you actually do something physical.

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