Quote

My greatest fear in working is always the end. Lately I have taken to tricking myself into finishing by leaving a hole in the middle somewhere, then stitching the two pieces together - the Union Pacific approach.

Twyla Tharp

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Twyla Tharp
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: July 1
Ballet Dancer
Choreographer
Dancer
Writer
Portland
Indiana
Two
Approach
Finishing
Ends
Pieces
Pacific
Together
Greatest
Hole
Always
Middle
Holes
Taken
Union
Working
Unions
Stitching
Fear
Somewhere
Tricking
Artist
Leaving
Lately

More quotes by Twyla Tharp

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The formal education that I received made little sense to me.
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I feel I can handle the architecture of dance as well as anybody.
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No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time.
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You don't have a really good idea until you combine two little ideas.
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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.
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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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To embrace luck, you have to enhance your tolerance for ambiguity.
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Without the little ideas, there are no big ideas.
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I have the wherewithal to challenge myself for my entire life. That's a great gift.
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I have always felt one of the things dance should do - its business being so clearly physical - is challenge the culture's gender stereotypes.
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Limits are a secret blessing, and bounty can be a curse.
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Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art.
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I began to discriminate between fear and excitement. The two, though very close, are completely different. Fear is negative excitement, choking your imagination. Real excitement produces an energy that overcomes apprehension and makes you want to close in on your goal.
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I do believe that when dancing is right, the movement possesses a logic common to us all.
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Don’t sign on for more problems than you must. Resist the temptation to involve yourself in other people’s zones of expertise and responsibility. Monitor troublesome situations if you need to, but don’t insert yourself unless you’re running out of time and a solution is nowhere in sight. In short, stifle your inner control freak.
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Whom the gods wish to destroy, they give unlimited resources.
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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.
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There's an energy that comes through the release of tension that is laughter.
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I have learned over the years that you should never save for two meetings what you can accomplish in one.
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Playwrights have texts, composers have scores, painters and sculptors have the residue of those activities, and dance is traditionally an ephemeral, effervescent, here-today-gone-tomorrow kind of thing.
Twyla Tharp