Twyla Tharp's Dance Career

Twyla Tharp was born in 1941 and grew up in Southern California. Growing up, her extracurricular activities consisted of baton, ballet, toe, flamenco, drums, elocution, painting, viola, violin, acrobatics, shorthand, German, and French. Tharp graduated from Banard College with a degree in art history. After graduating, Tharp performed her first professional debut with Paul Taylor Company in 1963, having the role of crawling across that stage. Two years later, she founded her first company in which she had sustainment of various forms. Since then, Tharp has created over 70 works of her own company, various other ballet and modern companies, as well as Broadway shows. In our class discussion on Wednesday the 11th, we discussed a few topics …show more content…
Dance as a profession is very hard on our bodies both physically and mentally. Personally, this is something that I ask myself every day, but I know that deep down inside that dance is what I live for. Twyla Tharp realized that if you create art and love dance, you’d best believe in yourself with no ulterior motives. It took her seven minute dance on stage to give Tharp the development backbone she needed to continue in the dance career. Martha Graham once said that it takes ten years to become a dancer. You have to want this to continue with your own individual …show more content…
When reading the chapter it was very confusing on my part of why she called it sex. After Jayden brought it up in our class discussion, Professor Gallo described that the sex part was more of what she was wearing. Twyla Tharp was wearing a backless leotard cut high on the sides with red pants, slightly bell-bottomed but tight at the hip, stopping short to revel her ankles in velvet high-heeled bedroom slippers. By wearing this, the audience expected her to do so much more than what she actually did. They expected her to do the sexual moves to match what she was wearing, but instead she only circled her arm and played with a yo-yo. As a dancer/choreography, you have to get an audience somehow and we all know that sex sells. It’s a way for us get information out there for them to want more. In conclusion, Twyla Tharp’s “Tank Dive” really opened my eyes to how the dance world really works. There are things that are going to tear you down, but in the end, it’s only going to make you stronger. The seven minute dance started her off and gave Tharp the back bone that she needed to continue her career as a professional dancer. Even though Tharp still today has that same question she keeps asking herself “Do you want this or not” she tries to not let it stand in the way of her money and celebrity. Dancers experience this question day in and day out, no matter how their career is