Twyla Tharp Quotes
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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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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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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 am still pushing the edge of what my body can do.
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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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Who a dancer is physically feeds into character for me. Always has.
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I do not watch television, never have.
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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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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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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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I'm a known reader. That's what I do with my time.
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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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When I started making dances in the '60s, narrative dance was sort of off the radar screen. What was important at the time in the avant-garde was minimalism.
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When I started thinking seriously about learning the rules of narrative, I thought, 'You've learned the rules of dancing from the ballet; what's the matter with learning the laws of theater from the people who know how to do it?'
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I'm not satisfied sitting in just the world of abstract work.
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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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What is music about? You can't listen to one era, one composer, and know what music is about.
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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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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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Everything present is included in the past somewhere; nobody's present pops out of nowhere.
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Dance has never been a particularly easy life, and everybody knows that.
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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.
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Schubert had arguably the same melodic gift as Mozart, but even less support. He didn't have the early exposure, never got to travel anywhere, and yet generated and amassed a body of work that grew and developed and is very profound.
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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.