Twyla Tharp Essay

On July 1, 1941, Twyla Tharp was born in the Portland, Indiana. She spent her early childhood in Indiana but later moved to California in 1963 and completed her degree in Art history in New York. Compared to other dancers, at a young age, she learnt quite a number of genres in the arts like ballet, tap, jazz, modern and music. When she was just a year and a half old she was already given piano lessons. Her first dance lesson was at the Vera Lynn School of Dance. During her dancing years, she had lessons from Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham and later, she joined Paul Taylor’s dance company. Even so, she formed her own dance company at quite a young age of 23, Twyla Tharp dance company. She has a way of choreographing as she used the crossover …show more content…
Her selection of musical composers usually varies from classical masters to jazz and pop superstars but in Push Comes to Shove, it is a combination of all. This dance piece has been performed 17 times. Including this dance piece, her dances are known for creativity, wittiness and being able to improvise with what is given on stage.
Twyla’s work expands the boundaries of ballet and modern dance, she combines different forms of movements such as jazz, ballet, boxing and inventions of her own and blends them with quirky and humorous style. As seen in her other pieces, she packs each phrase with unexpected dramatic and movement imagery.

This piece has a mix of jazz, modern and classical ballet movement. The main male character who was dressed in an orange shirt with a bowler hat, the dancer who plays partially clown, partially a master classical ballet dancer has performed the role in the performance that was entertaining and charming in the most delightful ways. The corps de ballet has eagerly embraced Twyla’s style of being able to push forward. The two main lead female, has portrayed the normal rivals of two ladies competing for a male with highly amusing theatrical