Twyla Tharp Quotes

Life is about moving, it’s about change. And when things stop doing that they’re dead.

~ Twyla Tharp

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.

~ Twyla Tharp

Creativity is an act of defiance.

~ Twyla Tharp

In every situation, at the beginning or end of the workday, you have a choice. You can look back or you can look forward. My advice: look forward. Always think about the next day. Don't go into the studio thinking, 'Hmmm, let's see what I was doing yesterday?' It takes more energy to twist yourself around and look back that it does to face forward.

~ Twyla Tharp

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.

~ Twyla Tharp

Reading is your first line of defense against an empty head.

~ Twyla Tharp

You don’t get lucky without preparation, and there’s no sense in being prepared if you’re not open to the possibility of a glorious accident.

~ Twyla Tharp

Here’s how I learned to improvise: I played some music in the studio and I started to move. It sounds obvious, but I wonder how many people, whatever their medium, appreciate the gift of improvisation. It’s your one opportunity in life to be completely free, with no responsibilities and no consequences. You don’t have to be good or even interesting. It’s you alone, with no one watching or judging. If anything comes of it, you decide whether the world gets to see it. In essence, you are giving yourself permission to daydream during working hours.

~ Twyla Tharp

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

~ Twyla Tharp

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

~ Twyla Tharp

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

~ Twyla Tharp

In dreams, anything can be anything, and everybody can do. We can fly, we can turn upside down, we can transform into anything.

~ Twyla Tharp

I think a sense of humor will help get a girl out of a dark place.

~ Twyla Tharp

Ultimately there is no such thing as failure. There are lessons learned in different ways.

~ Twyla Tharp

Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.

~ Twyla Tharp

To survive, you've got to keep wheedling your way. You can't just sit there and fight against odds when it's not going to work. You have to turn a corner, dig a hole, go through a tunnel - and find a way to keep moving.

~ Twyla Tharp

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

~ Twyla Tharp

People often say to me, 'I don't know anything about dance.' I say, 'Stop. You got up this morning, and you're walking. You are an expert.'

~ Twyla Tharp

I always tell students that you've got to be practical. You do not need a dream. You need a purpose, something you can wake up to in the morning when the dream is dissipated.

~ Twyla Tharp

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

~ Twyla Tharp

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

~ Twyla Tharp

What we want from modern dance is courage and audacity.

~ Twyla Tharp

Schubert had arguably the same melodic gift as Mozart, but even less support. He didn't have the early exposure, never got to travel anywhere, and yet generated and amassed a body of work that grew and developed and is very profound.

~ Twyla Tharp

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 a difficult time with many components of the Romantic imagination because of modernism.

~ Twyla Tharp

Everyone has a talent. It's simply a question of good discipline, of the good fortune to have an education that meshes with that talent, and a lot of luck.

~ Twyla Tharp

'The Creative Habit' is basically about how you work alone, how you survive as a solitary artist. 'The Collaborative Habit' is obviously about surviving with other people.

~ Twyla Tharp