Twyla Tharp

Twyla Tharp (2004)

Twyla Tharp (born July 1, 1941 in Portland , Indiana ) is an American choreographer and ballet master .

Life

Twyla Tharp grew up in California . Her mother, a piano teacher, wanted her daughter to acquire the widest possible range of skills. That started with piano lessons at the age of two, ballet lessons at the age of four, and learning various other instruments, painting and French. Twyla Tharp began her college education at Pomona College, but after a year she moved to Banard College in New York , where she studied art history. At the same time, she studied dance with Martha Graham and Erick Hawkins at the American Ballet Theater School outside of college .

After two years with Paul Taylor , she founded her own ballet company in 1965 . In 1988 her company merged with the American Ballet Theater, for which she created more than a dozen plays. She subsequently choreographed pieces for other famous ballet companies such as the Royal Ballet and the New York City Ballet .

In 1979, Twyla Tharp worked with director Miloš Forman for the first time for the film Hair . They later repeated their collaboration on the films Ragtime (1980) and Amadeus (1984). Other film projects were White Nights (1985) and I'll Do Anything (1994).

Since 1980 Tharp has also worked on Broadway , including When We Were Very Young , Singing in the Rain and Moving out . David Byrne composed all the songs for the Broadway production The Catherine Wheel in 1981 for the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation . In 1986 Philip Glass composed the music for the 45 minute long dance piece In the Upper Room , also known as Dancer's Notebook, # 1-9 .

In 1991 her own company was revived. Her program Cutting up , which was developed in collaboration with Mikhail Baryshnikov , was one of the most successful productions of contemporary dance.

Awards and honors

• 1985 two Emmys Awards
• 1992 MacArthur Fellow
• 1993 member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1997 Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2003 Tony Award for Moving Out
• 2003 Astaire Award
• 2003 Drama League Award
• 2003 Drama Desk Award
• 2003 Outer Critics Circle Award
• 2008 Kennedy Prize
• 2015 member of the American Philosophical Society

Works

Books

• Push Comes to Shove - Autobiography; Bantam Dell Pub Group 1992; ISBN 978-0-553-07306-5
• The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life; Simon & Schuster 2008; ISBN 978-0-7432-3527-3

Sound carrier

• Philip Glass: In the Upper Room - Dancer's Notebook # 1-9 , Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation, Inc., conductor; Michael Riesmann, 2009 Orange Mountain Music (CD)
• Songs from the Broadway Production of "The Catherine Wheel" , composer and singer: David Byrne, 1982, Hamburg: WEA-Musik (vinyl)

Web links

• Own homepage