Twyla Tharp Quotes
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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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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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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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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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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 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'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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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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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 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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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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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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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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What is music about? You can't listen to one era, one composer, and know what music is about.
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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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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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Everything present is included in the past somewhere; nobody's present pops out of nowhere.
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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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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.