A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet, that the two disciplines were totally separate, and if you did one, you couldn’t do the other. I’m beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the rigid separation between different forms of dance can be detrimental to creativity and expression.
Twyla Tharp expresses her belief that the artificial barriers between different dance styles, such as modern dance and ballet, are restrictive and counterproductive. She argues that these walls limit the potential for blending influences and innovations, advocating for a more integrated approach to art that allows for the exploration and fusion of various techniques and styles. By challenging the notion of exclusivity in dance, she emphasizes the importance of versatility and openness in artistic expression.
In practice
In a lecture about the importance of artistic fusion, this quote can illustrate the need to break down barriers in the creative process.
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.
Kid ... Comics will break your heart.
To make films, you have to have something to say. To have something to say, you have to be a student of life. And to be a student of life, you have to be feeding yourself with what life, politics, society, and your family fuels you with.
Cooking is the art of adjustment.
As a director you have to be careful you don't over-design the film. You have to be careful that the period aspect does not take over.
I'd have been a filmmaker or a cartoonist or something else which extended from the visual arts into the making of narratives if I hadn't been able to shift into fiction.
So they were turning, after all - those cameras. Life, which can be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her. Norma: You see, this is my life. It always will be! (In a whisper) There's nothing else - just us - and the cameras - and those wonderful people out there in the dark. All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up.
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