You called it vision, I call it analyzing what my strengths were. It just so happened there was no market whatsoever for my strength, unless I was interested in becoming a show dancer, for which I tried, but I’m not tall enough. Also, when I auditioned for the Radio City Rockettes, they said, “We love your fouettés, but can’t you smile?” And things of that nature transpired between me and a commercial future. So, I managed to find a way of subsisting in the beginning by doing odd jobs, Kelly Girl temp work, selling perfume at Macy’s, and any and everything to be able to sustain studying and beginning a career with a group of dancers who were willing to devote five years, really, of their lives to me, working very seriously, with complete commitment, for not a penny.
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Twyla Tharp
Choreographer, dancer and author
United States · b. 1941
Arts and letters
About
American choreographer who founded Twyla Tharp Dance in 1965, initially an all-female company that rehearsed for five years while performing rarely. She went on to make work for the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and Broadway, and to choreograph for Miloš Forman’s films Hair, Ragtime and Amadeus. She received the National Medal of Arts in 2004 and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2008.
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