The ultimate point of a piece for me is that it drives the next one. Does it open new doors? That's the success of a piece.
Interpretation
The success of a creative work lies in its ability to inspire future creations.
Twyla Tharp emphasizes that the true measure of success for an artistic piece is not just its immediate impact but its potential to inspire and lead to new ideas and works. A successful piece should act as a catalyst that opens up new possibilities and avenues for exploration in art and creativity.
In practice
During a discussion on a recent art exhibition, I shared this quote to illustrate how artists build upon each other's work.
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.
Every writer is a frustrated actor who recites his lines in the hidden auditorium of his skull.
You don't write a song to sit there on a page. You write it to sing it.
Since I have always preferred making plans to executing them, I have gravitated towards situations and systems that, once set into operation, could create music with little or no intervention on my part. That is to say, I tend towards the roles of planner and programmer, and then become an audience to the results
Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as director. Now you're a director. Everything after that you're just negotiating your budget and your fee.
To this urn let those repair_x000D_ _x000D_ That are either true or fair;_x000D_ _x000D_ For these dead birds sigh a prayer.
I was pirouette and flourish, I was filigree and flame. How could I count my blessings when I didn't know their names?
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