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I also had a will that let me eliminate everything that stood in the way of my becoming the best dancer I could be. By a gradual process... (I) had invested every bit of my dreams, my hopes, my energies in defining myself as a dancer.

Twyla Tharp

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Twyla Tharp
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: July 1
Ballet Dancer
Choreographer
Dancer
Writer
Portland
Indiana
Best
Dance
Gradual
Everything
Dreams
Invested
Every
Becoming
Energies
Way
Bits
Eliminate
Process
Defining
Energy
Stood
Dream
Dancer
Also
Hopes

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Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box
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I understand things that are American, for better or worse.
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A dancer's life is all about repetition.
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As people who have commitments and obligations, we try to blockade emotions and go on our course towards excellence, and that's a lie. I've definitely paid a price. Everything is an exchange.
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One clear difference between art and commercial work is that commercial work is exploitive: the work may be high quality but the intention is to sell product or tickets. Art exists with or without ticket sales.
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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.
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Alone is a fact, a condition where no one else is around. Lonely is how you feel about that.
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Whom the gods wish to destroy, they give unlimited resources.
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I've always had to keep the walls in place, and the only way to do that is to keep yourself constantly occupied... From the time I was 8 years old, until I went to college, I worked... There was no social life.
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You can keep on chewing gum for ten hours, but after about a minute and a half you've got all the good out of it.
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More often than not I've found, a rut is a consequence of sticking to tried and tested methods that don't take into account how you or the world has changed.
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The content and thematic materials of dance is, of itself, like boxing. You play tennis and baseball. But boxing is not a sport you play: you stand up and do it.
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There is obviously a power and a truth in action that doesn't lie, which words easily can do.
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Our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable.
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I repeat the wake-up, the workout, the quick shower, the breakfast of three hard-boiled egg whites and a cup of coffee, the hour to make my morning calls and deal with correspondence, the two hours of stretching and working out ideas by myself in the studio ... That's my day, every day. A dancer's life is all about repetition.
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Never worry that rote exercises aimed at developing skills will suffocate creativity. At the same time, it's important to recognize that demonstrating great technique is not the same as being creative.
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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.
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I have a sort of tactility about music. I go into record stores and just run my fingers over it, the spines.
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A young person has to start making decisions for themselves at a much earlier age than an overbearing parent allows one.
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The blank space can be humbling. But I've faced it my whole professional life. It's my job. It's also my calling. Bottom line: Filling this empty space constitutes my identity.
Twyla Tharp