Quotes from Twyla Tharp

I'm not satisfied sitting in just the world of abstract work.

What I do remember is visualization of the sound of music, seeing bodies in movement in relation to how music sounded, because my mother practiced at the keyboard a lot and I also went to her lessons. As a two year old, three year old I remember seeing things in movement.

'Bum's Rush' is a piece about timing, and everything that's in the piece needs to be with the piece. If people are missing, or marking, or unable to use their voices, the impulses that prompt the action are lost, and its logic crumbles.

These days, I think we could all agree that having a just-friend is not a bad thing.

To make real change, you have to be well anchored - not only in the belief that it can be done, but also in some pretty real ways about who you are and what you can do.

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.

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.'

The necessity to constantly turn in an excellent performance, to be absolutely wedded to this dedication and this ideal means that as a child you're going to pay for it personally.

You can only generate ideas when you put pencil to paper, brush to canvas... when you actually do something physical.

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

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

It's very important to work myself physically as hard as I can.

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.

A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I'm beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.

The disasteris not the money, although the money will be missed. The disaster is the disrespect--this belief that the arts are dispensable, that they're not critical to a culture's existence.

I've always thought my creative life began the moment my mother called me Twyla.

when the time came I would do battle with my mother for the right to sit at the center of my own life.

I think of music as fuel, its spectrum of energy governed by tempi, volume, and heart.

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

Everything is raw material. Everything is relevant. Everything is usable. Everything feeds into my creativity. But without proper preparation, I cannot see it, retain it, and use it.

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

I've survived inattention. I hope to God I survive attention.

Doing is better than not doing, and if you do something badly you'll learn to do it better.

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