Twyla Tharp Quotes
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Ultimately there is no such thing as failure. There are lessons learned in different ways.
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I had always seen myself as a star; I wanted to be a galaxy.
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If a thing moves, it lives.
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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.
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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.
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When I look at the people who are the guiding figures in modern dance, I think, 'This does not look to me like the way I want to spend my days.'
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There is a moral dimension, for me, in anything that's any good.
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It is extremely arrogant and very foolish to think that you can ever outwit your audience.
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Nothing is more terrifying to me, really, than the status quo. I'll make mistakes before I keep doing something the same way.
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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.
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I am still pushing the edge of what my body can do.
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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.
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I was privileged to be able to study a year with Martha Graham, the last year she was teaching.
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We don't need to illustrate music; music illustrates itself.
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Kids should be encouraged to compete.
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I have the wherewithal to challenge myself for my entire life. That's a great gift.
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The only thing I fear more than change is no change. The business of being static makes me nuts.
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I work because I have issues and questions and feelings and thoughts that I want to have a look at. I'm not in need of, or wanting, particularly, to know what other folk are up to.
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What we want from modern dance is courage and audacity.
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I realize that dancers have worked long and hard for standards. However, on occasion, I think that it's good to examine one's heart and ask why are we dancing.
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I would have to challenge the term, modern dance. I don't really use that term in relation to my work. I simply think of it as dancing. I think of it as moving.
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Let me put it this way: I would like to direct a successful film. An unsuccessful film I would not like to direct. Films are very difficult.
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I'm not satisfied sitting in just the world of abstract work.
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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 seeing things in movement.