Twyla Tharp Quotes

I started formal piano training when I was 4. From there I had little violas, and I had dancing lessons of every sort and description, and painting lessons. I had German. And shorthand.

More often than not I've found, a rut is a consequence of sticking to tried and tested methods that don't take into account how you or the world has changed.

You only need one good reason to commit to an idea, not four hundred. But if you have four hundred reasons to say yes and one reason to say no, the answer is probably no.

The routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightening bold of inspiration, maybe more. And this routine is available to everyone.

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

The ballet needs to tell its own story in such a way it can be received without having to be translated into language.

The blank space can be humbling. But I've faced it my whole professional life. It's my job. It's also my calling. Bottom line: Filling this empty space constitutes my identity.

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.

Whom the gods wish to destroy, they give unlimited resources.

If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge.

Our guys have a vision of something bigger.

Limits are a secret blessing, and bounty can be a curse.

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

When you're in a rut, you have to question everything except your ability to get out of it.

I have the wherewithal to challenge myself for my entire life. That's a great gift.

Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box

The notion of the hero as outsider, as alien, is forget it, over, done with. It's not about being against society anymore. It's about standing there, holding something up. It's not pulling away.

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.

Every dance I make is a dive into this well of ancient memory.

It was not until I had graduated from college that I made a professional commitment to it. Frankly, I didn't think it wise. I was my own interior parental force, and it's very difficult to justify a profession as a dancer.

Our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable.

In terms of individuals who actually inspired me, very few of the academic people that I had access to had that power over me. Maybe it's simply because I wasn't that committed to geometry.

There's a paradox in the notion that creativity should be a habit. We think of creativity as a way of keeping everything fresh and new, while habit implies routine and repetition. That paradox intrigues me because it occupies the place where creativity and skill rub up against each other.

I do everything I know how in a dance.

The art of these Fifties movies was in sustaining forever the moment before sex.

Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art.

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

Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft.

As people who have commitments and obligations, we try to blockade emotions and go on our course towards excellence, and that's a lie. I've definitely paid a price. Everything is an exchange.

I don't mean this, but I'm going to say it anyway. I don't really think of pop art and serious art as being that far apart.

There's an energy that comes through the release of tension that is laughter.

Generosity is luck going in the opposite direction, away from you. If you're generous to someone, if you do something to help him out, you are in effect making him lucky. This is important. It's like inviting yourself into a community of good fortune.

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.

By making the start of the sequence automatic, they replace doubt and fear with comfort and routine.

My mother was a dominant force in my life. She had a very specific idea about education, which was: you should know everything about everything. It was quite simple. There was no exclusivity, and there really was no judgment, which is a good thing for someone who still thinks of themselves as a very basic American.

Optimism with some experience behind it is much more energizing than plain old experience with a certain degree of cynicism.

Reading, conversation, environment, culture, heroes, mentors, nature – all are lottery tickets for creativity. Scratch away at them and you’ll find out how big a prize you’ve won.

Art is an investigation.

The rewards of dancing are very different from choreographing.

Creativity requires quite a lot of faith - not just in yourself but also in the knowledge that you have the right to proceed, even when you may not know exactly what you're doing.

In the future, I will make certain that I commit to projects so there's enough breathing space for me to have an emotional life.

It takes skill to bring something you've imagined into the world: to use words to create believable lives, to select the colors and textures of paint to represent a haystack at sunset, to combine ingredients to make a flavorful dish. No one is born with that skill. It is developed through exercise, through repitition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time. . . . If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge.

The first steps of a creative act are like groping in the dark: random and chaotic, feverish and fearful, a lot of busy-ness with no apparent or definable end in sight.

I am fairly concise when I work and I work quickly because I think work is done better in a high gear than done our in a gear when everyone's exhausted. Get focused, do it!

There is obviously a power and a truth in action that doesn't lie, which words easily can do.

I began ear training when I was about six months old. My mother was a concert pianist, and she started all of her children with music before they were a year old. Then she began to see that I had a musical gift...

If you're speaking of love, you really must include the element of uncertainty - and perhaps it's best approached as the art of constant maintenance.

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