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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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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Optimism with some experience behind it is much more energizing than plain old experience with a certain degree of cynicism.
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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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Who a dancer is physically feeds into character for me. Always has.
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I find the aesthetics of the 20th century hopelessly barren.
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I'm a known reader. That's what I do with my time.
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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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Everything present is included in the past somewhere; nobody's present pops out of nowhere.
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In circuses, there is a lot of magic. Things become other things.
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Counterpoint is a component that gives real energy, and it is about optimism.
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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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I'm not satisfied sitting in just the world of abstract work.
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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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I find that dancers are only well trained in ballet these days.
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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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You can only generate ideas when you put pencil to paper, brush to canvas... when you actually do something physical.
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At the ballet classes I took when I first came to New York, I would see great dancers like Cynthia Gregory and Lupe Serrano. I would look at them and study what they could do, and what I couldn't do. And then I'd think maybe they should try what I could do.
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Dance has never been a particularly easy life, and everybody knows that.
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What is music about? You can't listen to one era, one composer, and know what music is about.
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I've always felt compelled to explore range, because, as far as I know, we're only here once. So let's see how much we can encompass.
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The only way to know the truth of a movement is to do it on your own body.
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I don't judge. Judgment is not my business. Existing is my business.
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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.