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Twyla Tharp Quotes

Dancer

Twyla Tharp, born on July 1, 1941, is an outstanding American dancer, choreographer, and director. Her dance works are known for their unique style and innovative arrangements, which have had a profound impact on the development of modern dance.

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Famous Twyla Tharp Quotes

“I repeat the wake-up, the workout, the quick shower, the breakfast of three hard-boiled egg whites and a cup of coffee, the hour to make my morning calls and deal with correspondence, the two hours of stretching and working out ideas by myself in the studio ... That's my day, every day. A dancer's life is all about repetition.”

Source: The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life

“dance is simply the refinement of human movement - walking, running, and jumping. We are all experts. There should be no art form more accessible than dance, yet no art is more mystifying in the public imagination.”

Should Humans Art Running Form Imagination Movement Walking Art Is Dance Experts Jumping Refinement

Author:Twyla Tharp

“I have always felt one of the things dance should do - its business being so clearly physical - is challenge the culture's gender stereotypes.”

Should Culture Felt Challenges Dance Gender Stereotype Gender Stereotypes

Book:Push Comes to Shove

Source: Push Comes to Shove

“when dancing is right, the movement possesss a logic common to us all, an inevitability that takes it beyond the personal and egocentric and makes of it classical art.”

Art Common Movement Logic Dancing Dance Inevitability Egocentric Classical Art

Book:Push Comes to Shove

Source: Push Comes to Shove

“Dance is the stepchild of the arts.”

Art Dance Stepchild

Book:Push Comes to Shove

Source: Push Comes to Shove

“Dancers are allowed, indeed encouraged, to remain children forever.”

Children Forever Dance Dancer

Book:Push Comes to Shove

Source: Push Comes to Shove

“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”

“A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet, that the two disciplines were totally separate, and if you did one, you couldn’t do the other. I’m beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.”

People Thinking Modern Wall Dance Dancer Ballet Unhealthy Ballet Dancer Modern Dance

Author:Twyla Tharp

“I often say that in making dances I can make a world where I think things are done morally, done democratically, done honestly.”

Thinking World I Can Done Dancing Dance Honestly Choreography Choreographers

Author:Twyla Tharp

“Dance has never been a particularly easy life, and everybody knows that.”

Knows Easy Dance Easy Life

Author:Twyla Tharp

“It is extremely arrogant and very foolish to think that you can ever outwit your audience.”

Thinking Audience Stupid Dance Foolish Arrogant

Author:Twyla Tharp

“I'm not one who divides music, dance or art into various categories. Either something works, or it doesn't.”

Inspirational Art Dance Various Categories Divides

Author:Twyla Tharp

“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.”

Thinking Use Moving Term Challenges Modern Relation Dancing Dance Modern Dance

Author:Twyla Tharp

“Playwrights have texts, composers have scores, painters and sculptors have the residue of those activities, and dance is traditionally an ephemeral, effervescent, here-today-gone-tomorrow kind of thing.”

Inspirational Kind Today Gone Tomorrow Activity Dance Painter Score Composer Playwright Sculptors Ephemeral Here Today Gone Tomorrow

Author:Twyla Tharp

“Dancing is like bank robbery, it takes split-second timing.”

Dancing Dance Dancer Splits Timing Just Dance Robbery Short Dance Bank Robbery

Author:Twyla Tharp

“I do everything I know how in a dance.”

Knows Know How Dancing Dance

Author:Twyla Tharp

“I also had a will that let me eliminate everything that stood in the way of my becoming the best dancer I could be. By a gradual process... (I) had invested every bit of my dreams, my hopes, my energies in defining myself as a dancer.”

Way Dream Energy Bits Process Becoming Let Me Dance Dancer Defining Becoming The Best Defining Myself

Book:Push Comes to Shove

Source: Push Comes to Shove

“I always, somehow, knew that I was going to dance.”

Dance

Author:Twyla Tharp

“I began to discriminate between fear and excitement. The two, though very close, are completely different. Fear is negative excitement, choking your imagination. Real excitement produces an energy that overcomes apprehension and makes you want to close in on your goal.”

Want Two Different Real Motivational Energy Goal Imagination Produce Negative Overcoming Dance Excitement Choke Apprehension

Book:Push Comes to Shove

Source: Push Comes to Shove

“I think that probably the moments of discovery do come from a place that is not totally organized. Order is something that we already know about. Discoveries are in a place we don't already know about.”

Thinking Knows Moments Order Discovery Dance Organized Ballet

Author:Twyla Tharp

“It's very difficult to justify a profession as a dancer.”

Difficult Dance Profession Dancer Justify

Author:Twyla Tharp

“This is not a pleasant route for many young people to consider. You have to be either hopelessly passionate, or very stupid.”

People Young Stupid Dance Passionate Pleasant Ballet Routes Very Stupid

Author:Twyla Tharp

“Usually kids who are talented have the brashness to think they can do anything, but they don't often get the chance to see how close they can come.”

Thinking Kids Can Do Chance Dance

Author:Twyla Tharp

“We're a machine and we have to be worked in the same way we have to be fed.”

Way Machines Dance Feds

Author:Twyla Tharp

“You have to believe there's something at the other side. And you have to have faith in yourself. You have to think that you have the tools to accomplish it.”

Thinking Inspirational Believe Sides Tools Dancing Dance Accomplish Have Faith Faith In Yourself Have Faith In Yourself

Author:Twyla Tharp

About the Author

Born: July 1, 1941
Known for: Dancer
Quotes: 210

Books & Sources

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for LifeRelated source material

Push Comes to ShoveRelated source material

The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working TogetherRelated source material

Keep It Moving: Lessons for the Rest of Your LifeRelated source material

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