Twyla Tharp Dancing Quotations

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

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.

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

The rewards of dancing are very different from choreographing.

When I started thinking seriously about learning the rules of narrative, I thought, 'You've learned the rules of dancing from the ballet; what's the matter with learning the laws of theater from the people who know how to do it?'

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

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

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

The way I enjoyed spending time most was dancing. That's from the time I was a very small child, When I was 4 or 5 years old, I remember already having a regime. It was the way I always identified myself.

when dancing is right, the movement possesss a logic common to us all, an inevitability that takes it beyond the personal and egocentric and makes of it classical art.