People often say to me, 'I don't know anything about dance.' I say, 'Stop. You got up this morning, and you're walking.… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I'm beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I'm not interested in seeing dance die. It's not to my advantage. Nor is it to our culture's advantage or anybody else's. — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
This is not a pleasant route for many young people to consider. You have to be either hopelessly passionate, or very stupid. — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I often say that in making dances I can make a world where I think things are done morally, done democratically, done… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
Modern dancers should be doing things no one else is doing, and it should come from the gut. — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission, and that's what I set out to do. — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
Desire is the first thing a modern dancer should have. Skill can be developed. But if you don't have desire as a… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I thought I had to make an impact on history. I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I'm obviously always interested in the dancer who's an athlete and vice versa. I expect dancers to be in condition like an… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
There's the tradition of the 19th-century ballets, and the 20th century has had a difficult time with that tradition. And it's had… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I've always believed that a dance evening energizes an audience, that an audience goes out feeling chemically stronger and more optimistic. This… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I think that probably the moments of discovery do come from a place that is not totally organized. Order is something that… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
The content and thematic materials of dance is, of itself, like boxing. You play tennis and baseball. But boxing is not a… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
With each piece I've completed I have worked to make it intact, and each of them has been an equal high. It's… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I have always felt one of the things dance should do - its business being so clearly physical - is challenge the… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
Usually kids who are talented have the brashness to think they can do anything, but they don't often get the chance to… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet, that the two disciplines were totally separate, and if… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
When I started making dances in the '60s, narrative dance was sort of off the radar screen. What was important at the… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I also had a will that let me eliminate everything that stood in the way of my becoming the best dancer I… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
It was not until I had graduated from college that I made a professional commitment to it. Frankly, I didn't think it… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
At the ballet classes I took when I first came to New York, I would see great dancers like Cynthia Gregory and… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I look for dancers who have all the technique in the world. But they must be dancers who are open-minded, who are… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
dance is simply the refinement of human movement - walking, running, and jumping. We are all experts. There should be no art… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I would have to challenge the term, modern dance. I don't really use that term in relation to my work. I simply… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
“I start every dance with a box. I write the project name on the box, and as the piece progresses I fill… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
Playwrights have texts, composers have scores, painters and sculptors have the residue of those activities, and dance is traditionally an ephemeral, effervescent,… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
You have to believe there's something at the other side. And you have to have faith in yourself. You have to think… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
When I look at the people who are the guiding figures in modern dance, I think, 'This does not look to me… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
Dance should not just divide people into audience and performers. Everyone should be a participant, whether going to classes or attending special… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
“A lot of habitually creative people have preparation rituals linked to the setting in which they choose to start their day. By putting themselves… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I have learned over the years that you should never save for two meetings what you can accomplish in one. — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I always find that the best collaborations are when you work with people that know what they're doing, and you leave them alone to… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
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… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
The art of these Fifties movies was in sustaining forever the moment before sex. — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
This is not a pleasant route for many young people to consider. You have to be either hopelessly passionate, or very stupid. — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I often say that in making dances I can make a world where I think things are done morally, done democratically, done honestly. — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I had received my first establishment grants in response to applications filed the year before. To the pages of baffling forms I had simply… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I don't think that scheduling is uncreative. I think that structure is required for creativity. — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
I have always felt one of the things dance should do - its business being so clearly physical - is challenge the culture's gender… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
There really is nothing I ever had access to that I didn't appreciate. — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
Destiny, quite often, is a determined parent. Mozart was hardly some naive prodigy who sat down at the keyboard and, with God whispering in… — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
When it all comes together, a creative life has the nourishing power we normally associate with food, love and faith. — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
Things change all the time, so why do people make such a philosophical to-do that things are constantly in transition? — Twyla Tharp Copy Share Image
