Twyla Tharp Quotes
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It's very difficult for me to do fund raising for my own organization if I'm working for other companies because sponsors will say, 'Well, hey, man, if she's doing a ballet for Ballet Theatre, we'll give money to Ballet Theatre.'
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'Bum's Rush' is a piece about timing, and everything that's in the piece needs to be with the piece. If people are missing, or marking, or unable to use their voices, the impulses that prompt the action are lost, and its logic crumbles.
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I'm not satisfied sitting in just the world of abstract work.
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A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I'm beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.
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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.
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I'm a known reader. That's what I do with my time.
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The ballet needs to tell its own story in such a way it can be received without having to be translated into language.
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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.
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To make real change, you have to be well anchored - not only in the belief that it can be done, but also in some pretty real ways about who you are and what you can do.
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Creativity is not just for artists. It's for businesspeople looking for a new way to close a sale; it's for engineers trying to solve a problem; it's for parents who want their children to see the world in more than one way.
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I think that anyone who's pushed to do the very best that they can is privileged. It's a luxury.
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I do not watch television, never have.
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Who a dancer is physically feeds into character for me. Always has.
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Optimism with some experience behind it is much more energizing than plain old experience with a certain degree of cynicism.
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In circuses, there is a lot of magic. Things become other things.
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I often say that in making dances I can make a world where I think things are done morally, done democratically, done honestly.
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Counterpoint is a component that gives real energy, and it is about optimism.
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Walt Disney was a master of the human psychology. His sense of timing, sense of speed. In a sense, those cartoons are like Rorschach tests.
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I find that dancers are only well trained in ballet these days.
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Everything present is included in the past somewhere; nobody's present pops out of nowhere.
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I've always believed that a dance evening energizes an audience, that an audience goes out feeling chemically stronger and more optimistic. This is what I understand about dance. And this is an important thing. We need this. Our culture needs it.
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Any comic is a tragic soul. Comedy is one of the things that allows one to survive. Particularly if one has been in the process of separating off the emotions, it's one place you can process them.
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You can only generate ideas when you put pencil to paper, brush to canvas... when you actually do something physical.
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Desire is the first thing a modern dancer should have. Skill can be developed. But if you don't have desire as a modern dancer, forget it.