Dance Quotes by Twyla Tharp

Who a dancer is physically feeds into character for me. Always has.

— Twyla Tharp

What we want from modern dance is courage and audacity.

— Twyla Tharp

My own physicality, not an abstract idea, makes me a choreographer.

— Twyla Tharp

If I didn't believe in myself as a dancer, I wouldn't choreograph.

— Twyla Tharp

Dance is the most fundamental of all art forms.

— Twyla Tharp

I find that dancers are only well trained in ballet these days.

— Twyla Tharp

This is the strange thing: Dancers don't age.

— Twyla Tharp

A dancer's life is all about repetition.

— Twyla Tharp

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

— Twyla Tharp

I was interested in becoming a show dancer, for which I tried, but I'm not tall enough.

— Twyla Tharp

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

— Twyla Tharp

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

— Twyla Tharp

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

— Twyla Tharp

My dancers expect me to deliver because my choreography represents their livelihood.

— Twyla Tharp

I do believe that when dancing is right, the movement possesses a logic common to us all.

— Twyla Tharp

When I was a kid, toe dancing and toe shoes had a meaning in our culture as a serious kind of art.

— Twyla Tharp

In those days, male dancers were a rarer breed than women. as they are still today, A good male dancer, one as…

— Twyla Tharp

I began to discriminate between fear and excitement. The two, though very close, are completely different. Fear is negative excitement, choking your…

— Twyla Tharp

Do I watch dancers as people? Yes, absolutely. Do I watch really good dancers for specifically who they are? Absolutely, because how…

— Twyla Tharp

I realize that dancers have worked long and hard for standards. However, on occasion, I think that it's good to examine one's…

— Twyla Tharp

The way I enjoyed spending time most was dancing. That's from the time I was a very small child, When I was…

— Twyla Tharp

when dancing is right, the movement possesss a logic common to us all, an inevitability that takes it beyond the personal and…

— Twyla Tharp

When I started thinking seriously about learning the rules of narrative, I thought, 'You've learned the rules of dancing from the ballet;…

— Twyla Tharp

I have not wanted to intimidate audiences. I have not wanted my dancing to be an elitist form. That doesn't mean I…

— Twyla Tharp

I walk into a large white room. It's a dance studio in midtown Manhattan. The room is clean, virtually spotless if you…

— Twyla Tharp

I used to say to myself, 'Well, in the old days everybody danced because they loved to dance, and there was none…

— Twyla Tharp

I repeat the wake-up, the workout, the quick shower, the breakfast of three hard-boiled egg whites and a cup of coffee, the…

— Twyla Tharp

“Dance is a tough life (and a tougher way to make a living). Choreography is even more brutal because there is no…

— Twyla Tharp

Dance is just like film in that it allows for thoughts in movement.

— Twyla Tharp

Dance is the stepchild of the arts.

— Twyla Tharp

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

— Twyla Tharp

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

— Twyla Tharp

I feel I can handle the architecture of dance as well as anybody.

— Twyla Tharp

I do everything I know how in a dance.

— Twyla Tharp

The rewards of dancing are very different from choreographing.

— Twyla Tharp

I see dance as glue for a community.

— Twyla Tharp

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

— Twyla Tharp

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

— Twyla Tharp

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

— Twyla Tharp

Living had little use for me other than how it could be funneled into dance.

— Twyla Tharp