Twyla Tharp Quotes
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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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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 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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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.
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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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Who a dancer is physically feeds into character for me. Always has.
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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 was privileged to be able to study a year with Martha Graham, the last year she was teaching.
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I'm not satisfied sitting in just the world of abstract work.
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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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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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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 do not watch television, never have.
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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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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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Dance should not just divide people into audience and performers. Everyone should be a participant, whether going to classes or attending special events or rehearsals.
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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'm a known reader. That's what I do with my time.
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I don't judge. Judgment is not my business. Existing is my business.
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There is obviously a power and a truth in action that doesn't lie, which words easily can do.
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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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Everything present is included in the past somewhere; nobody's present pops out of nowhere.