A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I'm beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.
Interpretation
Twyla Tharp suggests that artificial barriers between different forms of artistic expression can limit creativity and growth.
In this quote, Twyla Tharp challenges the notion of strict boundaries within the arts, specifically between modern dance and ballet. She implies that such divisions can be detrimental, preventing artists from exploring and merging different styles, ultimately leading to a richer, more innovative creative landscape. By advocating for the removal of these 'walls', Tharp calls for greater openness and collaboration in the arts.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of artistic collaboration, I would quote Tharp to illustrate my point.
Do I watch dancers as people? Yes, absolutely. Do I watch really good dancers for specifically who they are? Absolutely, because how they move best and how they look best is going to be most familiar to them, and not necessarily to me.
I am still pushing the edge of what my body can do.
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.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life.
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.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft.
I always joked with my parents. I told them, 'If I don't make it as an actor, my fallback is musician.'
For Poesy alone can tell her dreams, With the fine spell of words alone can save Imagination from the sable charm And dumb enchantment. Who alive can say, ‘Thou art no Poet may’st not tell thy dreams?’ Since every man whose soul is not a clod Hath visions, and would speak, if he had loved And been well nurtured in his mother tongue. Whether the dream now purpos’d to rehearse Be poet’s or fanatic’s will be known When this warm scribe my hand is in the grave.
When I’m photographing I see life.
Till now I have never shot a scene without taking account of what stands behind the actors because the relationship between people and their surroundings is of prime importance.
The novel is a territory where one does not make assertions; it is a territory of play and of hypotheses.
The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience, there is no theater. Everything done is ultimately for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, fellow players, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful.
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