Usually kids who are talented have the brashness to think they can do anything, but they don't often get the chance to see how close they can come.
Interpretation
Talented kids often believe they can achieve anything, but they lack opportunities to explore their potential fully.
This quote by Twyla Tharp emphasizes the confidence and boldness that often accompany talented youth, suggesting that while they may have the aspiration and self-belief to achieve great things, they frequently miss out on the crucial experiences that allow them to test and understand their capabilities. It reflects on the importance of providing opportunities for young talents to explore their abilities and learn from their efforts.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a presentation about nurturing young talent in schools.
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 loved to read, and I think any child who loves to read will read anything, including the back of the cereal box, which I did every morning.
Schools and schoolmasters, as we have them today, are not popular as places of education and teachers, but rather prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parent.
A good day is one where I can not just read a book, but write a review of it. Maybe today I'll be able to do that. I get for some reason somewhat stronger when the sun starts to go down. Dusk is a good time for me. I'm crepuscular.
Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.
A good example is the best sermon.
Someday, hopefully very soon, 'diving within' as a preparation for learning and as a tool for developing the creative potential of the mind will be a standard part of every schoolβs curriculum.
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