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" I've read probably 25 or 30 books by Balzac, all of Tolstoy - the novels and letters - and all of Dickens. I learned my craft from these guys. "
Twyla Tharp
Letters
Guys
Craft
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" I find the aesthetics of the 20th century hopelessly barren. "
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" I am still pushing the edge of what my body can do. "
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Still
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" It was not until I had graduated from college that I made a professional commitment to it. Frankly, I didn't think it wise. I was my own interior parental force, and it's very difficult to justify a profession as a dancer. "
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Commitment
College
Wise
" I don't judge. Judgment is not my business. Existing is my business. "
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" When I was a kid, the avant-garde to me was boring because it was just the flip side of being really successful. "
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Kid
Just
Me
" I do at least 75 push-ups a day. "
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Least
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" At the ballet classes I took when I first came to New York, I would see great dancers like Cynthia Gregory and Lupe Serrano. I would look at them and study what they could do, and what I couldn't do. And then I'd think maybe they should try what I could do. "
Twyla Tharp
Think
New York
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" Unfortunately, I think we've probably all had the experience that if we're in a relationship where one of the partners is doing it 'my' way, that relationship is not going to survive. "
Twyla Tharp
Think
Doing
Relationship
" I think Tolstoy had an unbelievably complicated relationship with women. "
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Relationship
Women
Think
" My mother was the first woman in the county in Indiana where we were born, in Jay County, to have a college degree. She was educated as a pianist and she wanted to concertize, but when the war came she was married, had a family, so she started teaching. "
Twyla Tharp
Family
Mother
War
" I've always believed that a dance evening energizes an audience, that an audience goes out feeling chemically stronger and more optimistic. This is what I understand about dance. And this is an important thing. We need this. Our culture needs it. "
Twyla Tharp
Feeling
Evening
Dance
" In terms of individuals who actually inspired me, very few of the academic people that I had access to had that power over me. Maybe it's simply because I wasn't that committed to geometry. "
Twyla Tharp
Me
Over
Power
" Work is work; wherever I'm working, I do the best I can. If the actual dollars come from investors as opposed to taxpayers and patrons, what's the difference? "
Twyla Tharp
Difference
Best
I Can
" Modern dancers should be doing things no one else is doing, and it should come from the gut. "
Twyla Tharp
Dancers
Gut
Doing
" I grew up in a drive-in theater, from the time I was 8, working in a snack bar watching four features every week. It was silent theater in the sense that this was a drive-in, which meant that I often saw the films going with no sound. But I learned to tell stories through action. "
Twyla Tharp
Week
Time
Sound
" I don't think that scheduling is uncreative. I think that structure is required for creativity. "
Twyla Tharp
Creativity
Structure
I Think
" 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 far apart. "
Twyla Tharp
Art
Think
Serious
" You can only generate ideas when you put pencil to paper, brush to canvas... when you actually do something physical. "
Twyla Tharp
Pencil
Only
Paper
" If a thing moves, it lives. "
Twyla Tharp
Moves
Thing
Lives
" Counterpoint is a component that gives real energy, and it is about optimism. "
Twyla Tharp
Optimism
About
Energy
" Any comic is a tragic soul. Comedy is one of the things that allows one to survive. Particularly if one has been in the process of separating off the emotions, it's one place you can process them. "
Twyla Tharp
Process
Soul
You
" I've survived inattention. I hope to God I survive attention. "
Twyla Tharp
Attention
Hope
God
" I've always found it necessity to strip away everything but the most fundamental ways to work - the rest is style. "
Twyla Tharp
Everything
Rest
Style
" My favorite audience is everybody. I worked in a drive-in theater from the time I was 8 years old until I went to college, and I'm accustomed to everybody can buy a ticket and everybody should be taken into account. "
Twyla Tharp
Time
Years
Audience
" 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
World
Think
Things
" What we want from modern dance is courage and audacity. "
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Want
Courage
Dance
" I used to say to myself, 'Well, in the old days everybody danced because they loved to dance, and there was none of this professional garbage going on about how much can you get for this or that or the other, or any of the kinds of things that insecurity can sometimes promote. Sometimes it's for the wrong reasons.' "
Twyla Tharp
Professional
Myself
Insecurity
" I learned very early that an audience would relax and look at things differently if they felt they could laugh with you from time to time. There's an energy that comes through the release of tension that is laughter. "
Twyla Tharp
Time
Relax
Energy
" Desire is the first thing a modern dancer should have. Skill can be developed. But if you don't have desire as a modern dancer, forget it. "
Twyla Tharp
Desire
You
Thing
" I'm a known reader. That's what I do with my time. "
Twyla Tharp
Reader
My Time
Known