Twyla Tharp - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/twyla-tharp","20170916184224","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1505587344"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Twyla Tharp - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content=""I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission, and that's what I set out to do." A large consensus of critics, dancers, and dance-loving audiences would agree that Twyla Tharp has succeeded in her mission. No one making serious dances in this country since the 1960s could ignore the challenge of her inventive, quirky, complex creations. No serious dance artist has ever stretched the boundaries between classical and popular, serious and silly, accessible and intellectual, as Twyla Tharp has. Even the arresting titles of her works convey their antic, inventive quality: The Bix Pieces, Deuce Coupe, Sue's Leg, Push Comes to Shove, Cutting Up. When she first began to work with her own small company in the 1960s, Twyla Tharp brought more intelligence, humor, originality and nerve to the making of dances than New York had seen in a long time, and she did it at a time when New York was the undisputed dance capital of the world. Twyla Tharp accomplished all this in her youth, when her own powerful dancing was one of her company's prime attractions. Over the course of her career, she has choreographed over a hundred dance works, three Broadway shows and five feature films. Her work has been recognized with honors ranging from Broadway's Tony Award to the National Medal of the Arts."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/twyla-tharp/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Twyla Tharp - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">"I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission, and that's what I set out to do."</p> <p class="inputText">A large consensus of critics, dancers, and dance-loving audiences would agree that Twyla Tharp has succeeded in her mission. No one making serious dances in this country since the 1960s could ignore the challenge of her inventive, quirky, complex creations. No serious dance artist has ever stretched the boundaries between classical and popular, serious and silly, accessible and intellectual, as Twyla Tharp has. Even the arresting titles of her works convey their antic, inventive quality: <i>The Bix Pieces, Deuce Coupe, Sue's Leg, Push Comes to Shove, Cutting Up</i>. When she first began to work with her own small company in the 1960s, Twyla Tharp brought more intelligence, humor, originality and nerve to the making of dances than New York had seen in a long time, and she did it at a time when New York was the undisputed dance capital of the world.</p> <p class="inputText">Twyla Tharp accomplished all this in her youth, when her own powerful dancing was one of her company's prime attractions. Over the course of her career, she has choreographed over a hundred dance works, three Broadway shows and five feature films. Her work has been recognized with honors ranging from Broadway's Tony Award to the National Medal of the Arts.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/twyla-tharp/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/tharp-3-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">"I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission, and that's what I set out to do."</p> <p class="inputText">A large consensus of critics, dancers, and dance-loving audiences would agree that Twyla Tharp has succeeded in her mission. No one making serious dances in this country since the 1960s could ignore the challenge of her inventive, quirky, complex creations. No serious dance artist has ever stretched the boundaries between classical and popular, serious and silly, accessible and intellectual, as Twyla Tharp has. Even the arresting titles of her works convey their antic, inventive quality: <i>The Bix Pieces, Deuce Coupe, Sue's Leg, Push Comes to Shove, Cutting Up</i>. When she first began to work with her own small company in the 1960s, Twyla Tharp brought more intelligence, humor, originality and nerve to the making of dances than New York had seen in a long time, and she did it at a time when New York was the undisputed dance capital of the world.</p> <p class="inputText">Twyla Tharp accomplished all this in her youth, when her own powerful dancing was one of her company's prime attractions. Over the course of her career, she has choreographed over a hundred dance works, three Broadway shows and five feature films. Her work has been recognized with honors ranging from Broadway's Tony Award to the National Medal of the Arts.</p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Twyla Tharp - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/tharp-3-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20170916184224\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebSite","@id":"#website","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20170916184224\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/","name":"Academy of Achievement","alternateName":"A museum of living history","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20170916184224\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/search\/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}</script> <script 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</div> </div> </header> <div class="" role="document"> <div class="content"> <main class="main"> <div class="feature-area__container"> <header class="feature-area feature-area--has-image ratio-container ratio-container--feature"> <figure class="feature-box"> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image feature-area__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/tharp-3-Feature-Image-2800x1120-380x152.jpg [(max-width:544px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/tharp-3-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg [(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/tharp-3-Feature-Image-2800x1120-1400x560.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Twyla Tharp</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Dancer and Choreographer</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-3213 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-choreographer careers-dancer"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">The only thing I fear more than change is no change. The business of being static makes me nuts. I have to feel that each thing I've learned I can push to another point next time. I'm not very good with repetition. I would rather not work than feel repetition is the order of the day.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">The High Priestess of Creative Movement</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 1, 1941 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="inputTextFirst">Twyla Tharp was born in Portland, Indiana, but moved with her parents to Southern California when she was still a child. The Tharp family owned and operated a drive-in movie theater in Rialto, California, and Twyla attended school in nearby San Bernardino. Twyla’s mother was a piano teacher who began to give Twyla piano lessons when she was only two. Twyla began dance classes at age four, and soon was studying every kind of dance available: ballet, tap, jazz, modern. Her mother was determined that she become accomplished in as many fields as possible and also had her take baton lessons, drum lessons, violin and viola lessons, classes in painting, shorthand, French and German.</p> <figure id="attachment_29034" style="width: 2253px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29034 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1968_ttinprofile_0.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29034 size-full lazyload" alt="1968: Twyla Tharp, three years after she founded her dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance." width="2253" height="1500" data-sizes="(max-width: 2253px) 100vw, 2253px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1968_ttinprofile_0.jpg 2253w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1968_ttinprofile_0-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1968_ttinprofile_0-760x506.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1968_ttinprofile_0.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1968: Twyla Tharp, two years after she founded her innovative dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance. Their work often utilizes classical music, jazz, and contemporary pop music. From 1971-1988, Twyla Tharp Dance toured extensively around the world, performing original works of dances, ballets, and theater. In 1988, her company merged with American Ballet Theatre, which has held world premiers of sixteen of Tharp’s award-winning works.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">Twyla Tharp left home for the first time to go to Pomona College, but after three semesters, she transferred to Barnard College in New York City. At Barnard, Tharp studied art history, but found her passion in the dance classes she took off campus. In New York, she was able to study at the American Ballet Theatre school, and with most of the great masters of modern dance: Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor and Erick Hawkins. She completed her art history degree, but she had already resolved to make a career in dance. Shortly after graduation in 1963, she joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company, but within two years, she left to start her own group, Twyla Tharp Dance. This company, originally composed of five women (two men were added in 1969), worked ceaselessly for five years, performing wherever they could, earning little or no money for their work.</p> <figure id="attachment_29056" style="width: 1000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-29056 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-New-York-April-10-1974.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-29056 lazyload" alt="1974: Twyla Tharp in New York. The following year, she created "Sue's Leg," one of the influential works she choreographed to classic jazz recordings, in this case by Fats Waller. (Avedon Foundation)" width="1000" height="1000" data-sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-New-York-April-10-1974.jpg 1000w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-New-York-April-10-1974-190x190.jpg 190w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-New-York-April-10-1974-380x380.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-New-York-April-10-1974-760x760.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-New-York-April-10-1974.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1974: Dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp in New York. The following year, she created <em>Sue’s Leg</em>, one of the influential works she choreographed to classic jazz recordings, in this case by Fats Waller. (Avedon Foundation)</figcaption></figure><p>In the cultural ferment of New York in the 1960s, most young artists felt challenged to test the boundaries of their media. Twyla Tharp’s work fused classical discipline and rigor with avant-garde iconoclasm, combining ballet technique with natural movements like running, walking and skipping. While modern dance had historically aspired to high seriousness and spirituality, Tharp’s work was humorous and edgy. She worked less often with contemporary avant-garde music than with classical music, pop songs, a clicking metronome, or silence. Always, the choreography was dynamic, unpredictable and underpinned by an unusually thorough musical intelligence. This became apparent to critics and audiences alike with her 1971 piece, <i>The Fugue.</i> Her group was invited to participate in major dance festivals where works like <i>The Bix Pieces </i>and <i>Eight Jelly Rolls </i>grabbed audiences with their physical daring and deep roots in the history of jazz.</p> <figure id="attachment_29041" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29041 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CtubL0TXEAAewuI.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29041 size-full lazyload" alt="1976: "Push Comes to Shove," created in 1976 and aired in 1984, performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov and members of American Ballet Theatre, was the first work Twyla Tharp choreographed for Baryshnikov, with whom she went on to have a successful artistic partnership." width="1024" height="822" data-sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CtubL0TXEAAewuI.jpg 1024w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CtubL0TXEAAewuI-380x305.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CtubL0TXEAAewuI-760x610.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CtubL0TXEAAewuI.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1976: <em>Push Comes to Shove </em>performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov and members of American Ballet Theatre, was the first work Tharp choreographed for Baryshnikov, with whom she went on to have a successful artistic partnership.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">Twyla Tharp and many of her dancers were now invited to collaborate and perform with major ballet companies. The Joffrey Ballet premiered her <i>Deuce Coupe </i>(set to music by the Beach Boys), <i>As Time Goes By </i>and <i>Sue’s Leg</i>. At American Ballet Theatre, Mikhail Baryshnikov danced the lead role in Tharp’s <i>Push Comes to Shove</i>, which juxtaposed variations by Mozart with rags by Scott Joplin. The Russian ballet star and the young American iconoclast were a powerful combination, and collaborated frequently in the following decades.</p> <figure id="attachment_29035" style="width: 1499px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29035 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1981_avedon_tt-davidbyrne.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29035 size-full lazyload" alt="1981: Twyla Tharp ventured onto Broadway in 1981 with "The Catherine Wheel." The Talking Heads's composer and lead singer, David Byrne, wrote the musical score, commissioned by Tharp for her dance project. "The Catherine Wheel" premiered September 22, 1981, at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City." width="1499" height="1500" data-sizes="(max-width: 1499px) 100vw, 1499px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1981_avedon_tt-davidbyrne.jpg 1499w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1981_avedon_tt-davidbyrne-190x190.jpg 190w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1981_avedon_tt-davidbyrne-380x380.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1981_avedon_tt-davidbyrne-760x760.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1981_avedon_tt-davidbyrne.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1981: Twyla Tharp ventured onto Broadway in 1981 with <em>The Catherine Wheel</em>. The Talking Heads’ composer and lead singer, David Byrne, wrote the musical score, commissioned by Tharp for her full-length dance production.</figcaption></figure><p>In 1979, she choreographed the dances for Milo&scaron; Forman’s film version of the ’60s rock musical <i>Hair</i>. In the decades ahead, much of her work would appear on Broadway, beginning with an original Tharp production, <i>When We Were Very Young</i>, in 1980. The following year, she staged a full-length dance production, <i>The Catherine Wheel</i>, on Broadway, with music by David Byrne in his first venture as a composer outside of the rock band Talking Heads. She continued to work in film as well, staging dances for the films <i>Ragtime</i> and <i>Amadeus</i>, both directed by Forman, and <i>White Nights</i>, starring Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. Her 1984 television production, <i>Baryshnikov by Tharp,</i> won three Emmy Awards, as well as a Director’s Guild of America Award for her direction of the special. The following year, she directed and choreographed a stage production of the classic film musical <i>Singin’ in the Rain</i>. The show enjoyed a solid run on Broadway and a highly successful national tour.</p> <figure id="attachment_29062" style="width: 1944px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29062 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-amadeus3.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29062 size-full lazyload" alt="1984: Twyla Tharp and director Milo? Forman with dancers from Forman's film "Amadeus." Tharp has collaborated with Forman on the films "Hair," "Ragtime" and "Amadeus."" width="1944" height="1494" data-sizes="(max-width: 1944px) 100vw, 1944px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-amadeus3.jpg 1944w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-amadeus3-380x292.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-amadeus3-760x584.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-amadeus3.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1984: Twyla Tharp and director Milo&scaron; Forman with dancers from Forman’s film <em>Amadeus, </em>which was filmed almost entirely in castles and palaces in Prague. Tharp has also collaborated with Forman on the films <em>Hair</em> and <em>Ragtime.</em></figcaption></figure><p>In the late 1980s, Tharp continued to create ballets at a slightly less hectic pace than before, while her past works became a staple of ballet companies around the world. in 1991, she reunited her company, Twyla Tharp Dance, with Baryshnikov joining the group in a program entitled <i>Cutting Up</i>. The work enjoyed one of the most successful tours in the history of contemporary dance. Twyla Tharp’s autobiography, <i>Push Comes to Shove</i>, was published in 1992. In the same year, she received a MacArthur Fellowship, one of the so-called “genius grants.” At the time of her 1993 interview with the Academy of Achievement, she was preparing dances for the motion picture <i>I’ll Do Anything</i>, directed by James L. Brooks. Although the project was originally conceived as a contemporary musical, the studio cut all musical numbers from the film before its release. Returning to the world of pure dance, Tharp created new works at a feverish pace for the rest of the decade. From 1999 to 2003, Twyla Tharp Dance toured the world to enormous popular and critical acclaim.</p> <figure id="attachment_29063" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29063 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-movinoutnyc2.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29063 size-full lazyload" alt="2002: Scene from "Movin' Out," the musical collaboration between pop legend Billy Joel and choreographer Twyla Tharp." width="2280" height="1425" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-movinoutnyc2.jpg 2280w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-movinoutnyc2-380x238.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-movinoutnyc2-760x475.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-movinoutnyc2.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2002: <em>Movin’ Out</em>, the musical collaboration between pop music legend Billy Joel and choreographer Twyla Tharp.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">Tharp returned to Broadway in 2002 with an original dance musical, <i>Movin’ Out</i>, built around the songs of Billy Joel. The songs were performed by a singer and pianist, accompanied by a rock band placed above the stage, while a company of dancers acted out a story of young people living through the tumultuous events of the 1960s and ’70s. The show brought Tharp a host of honors, including the Tony Award. <i>Movin’ Out</i> became Tharp’s most popular creation to date, running for over three years on Broadway. A national company toured the United States for another three years and also made stops in Canada and Japan. In 2006, Tharp brought a second “jukebox musical” to Broadway, <em>The Times They Are a Changin’</em>, based on the songs of Bob Dylan, followed in 2010 by <em>Come Fly Away</em>, set to songs associated with Frank Sinatra.</p> <figure id="attachment_29059" style="width: 2580px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29059 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twyla-tharp-05.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29059 size-full lazyload" alt="2004: President George W. Bush and Laura Bush present the National Medal of Arts award to Twyla Tharp. (Susan Sterner)" width="2580" height="2320" data-sizes="(max-width: 2580px) 100vw, 2580px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twyla-tharp-05.jpg 2580w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twyla-tharp-05-380x342.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twyla-tharp-05-760x683.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twyla-tharp-05.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2004: President George W. Bush and Laura Bush present the National Medal of Arts award to Twyla Tharp.</figcaption></figure><p>In 2003, Twyla Tharp published a second book, <em>The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life </em>(2003), in which she shared life lessons from her own career and those of artists throughout the ages. <em>The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together</em>, appeared in 2009. Her lifetime contribution to her country’s culture was recognized with the National Medal of Arts, presented by President George W. Bush in a 2004 ceremony at the White House. She received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2008.</p> <figure id="attachment_29031" style="width: 1050px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29031 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/06THARP-DANCERSWEB-master1050.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29031 size-full lazyload" alt="2015: Twyla Tharp's troupe prepares for their 50th anniversary tour." width="1050" height="700" data-sizes="(max-width: 1050px) 100vw, 1050px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/06THARP-DANCERSWEB-master1050.jpg 1050w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/06THARP-DANCERSWEB-master1050-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/06THARP-DANCERSWEB-master1050-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/06THARP-DANCERSWEB-master1050.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2015: Twyla Tharp’s troupe prepares for their 50th anniversary tour, an evening of new work by the choreographer.</figcaption></figure><p>Twyla Tharp’s prodigious creative energies are far from exhausted. As of this writing, she has choreographed over 160 works, including her work for Broadway, film and television. Her company, Twyla Tharp Dance, continues to tour nationally, and every year, her pieces, such as <em>Brahms Paganini</em>, <em>Brief Fling, Nine Sinatra Songs, Preludes and Fugues, </em>and <em>Beethoven Opus 103, </em>are performed by ballet companies around the world. Her creative vision has had a pervasive influence on the work of younger choreographers and has permanently expanded the boundaries of contemporary dance.</p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 1993 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.dancer">Dancer</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.choreographer">Choreographer</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 1, 1941 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">“I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission, and that’s what I set out to do.”</p> <p class="inputText">A large consensus of critics, dancers, and dance-loving audiences would agree that Twyla Tharp has succeeded in her mission. No one making serious dances in this country since the 1960s could ignore the challenge of her inventive, quirky, complex creations. No serious dance artist has ever stretched the boundaries between classical and popular, serious and silly, accessible and intellectual, as Twyla Tharp has. Even the arresting titles of her works convey their antic, inventive quality: <i>The Bix Pieces, Deuce Coupe, Sue’s Leg, Push Comes to Shove, Cutting Up</i>. When she first began to work with her own small company in the 1960s, Twyla Tharp brought more intelligence, humor, originality and nerve to the making of dances than New York had seen in a long time, and she did it at a time when New York was the undisputed dance capital of the world.</p> <p class="inputText">Twyla Tharp accomplished all this in her youth, when her own powerful dancing was one of her company’s prime attractions. Over the course of her career, she has choreographed over a hundred dance works, three Broadway shows and five feature films. Her work has been recognized with honors ranging from Broadway’s Tony Award to the National Medal of the Arts.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/E4xfwrBO87A?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_17_54_16.Still011-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_17_54_16.Still011-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">The High Priestess of Creative Movement</h2> <div class="sans-2">Glacier Park, Montana</div> <div class="sans-2">June 25, 1993</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>When did you first have a vision of what you wanted to do?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/LQGVYEgm8as?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_32_07_18.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_32_07_18.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/passion/">Passion</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Twyla Tharp: It depends on how you define vision. If it’s a sense of the way I enjoyed spending time most was dancing. It was from the time I was a very small child, when I puttered around the house. I was four or five years old, I remember already having a regimen. It was the way I always identified myself. If you’re speaking of professionally, it was not until I was after college, until I had graduated. So, it was much, much later that I made a professional commitment to it because, quite frankly, I didn’t think it wise. I was my own interior parental force, and it’s very difficult to justify a profession as a dancer… because it’s very difficult to earn a living; because there’s very little continuity, and because just when you arrive at the apex of your skills, it’s time to retire. And consequently, it seemed like perhaps a not wise investment of a substantial portion of my life. But as it turned out, I decided that since it was the thing that I felt I did the best, that I owed it to all that be to pursue it. That that was what I had to do, whether it meant I was going to be able to earn a living or not.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_29047" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29047 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/On-the-limit_Tharp_1969_001.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29047 size-full lazyload" alt="1969: In her early work from the 1960s, Tharp disassembled, analyzed, and re-created conventional jazz and modern movement." width="1600" height="1110" data-sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/On-the-limit_Tharp_1969_001.jpg 1600w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/On-the-limit_Tharp_1969_001-380x264.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/On-the-limit_Tharp_1969_001-760x527.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/On-the-limit_Tharp_1969_001.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1969: In her early work, Tharp disassembled, analyzed, and re-created conventional jazz and modern movement.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>You felt there was a magnetic force there?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/9ZsM74jtRvk?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_27_03_14.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_27_03_14.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Twyla Tharp: 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 <em>fouettés, </em>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. This is not a pleasant route for many young people to consider, I would imagine. Either you have to be either hopelessly passionate, I guess is the word that gets devoted here, or very stupid. None of us were very stupid; we were all college graduates, actually. But we all believed that we could make an impact on something that was very important to us, which was dancing and the future of dancing, and what could be accomplished. We determined we would do that.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_29038" style="width: 2260px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-29038 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bakersdozen_fullcast.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-29038 lazyload" alt="1979: ?Baker's Dozen,? choreographed by Twyla Tharp. "Baker?s Dozen" received its world premiere by the Twyla Tharp Dance Company on February 15, 1979, danced by Twyla Tharp, Rose Marie Wright, Tom Rawe, Jennifer Way, Shelley Washington, Christine Uchida, Raymond Kurshals, Richard Colton, Anthony Ferro, William Whitener, France Mayotte and John Carrafa." width="2260" height="1505" data-sizes="(max-width: 2260px) 100vw, 2260px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bakersdozen_fullcast.jpg 2260w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bakersdozen_fullcast-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bakersdozen_fullcast-760x506.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bakersdozen_fullcast.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1979: <em>Baker’s Dozen,</em> choreographed by Twyla Tharp, received its world premiere by the Twyla Tharp Dance Company, danced by Twyla Tharp, Rose Marie Wright, Tom Rawe, Jennifer Way, Shelley Washington, Christine Uchida, Raymond Kurshals, Richard Colton, Anthony Ferro, William Whitener, France Mayotte and John Carrafa.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>I get a feeling you worked with your first company almost like a scientist in a lab.</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: This is true.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/UX_U_ze09CI?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_10_09_23.Still009-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_10_09_23.Still009-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>We thought that there were certain possibilities, in terms of physical movement, in terms of community, and in terms of what dance could address in our society. And those were the issues that we went after. And we worked with a great deal of rigor. Which is to say, we were very, very dedicated. We worked six days a week, we worked at least six hours every day. We did not perform much at all. It was really about the experience of learning and exploring and growing, for five years.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Who were the dancers?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: For the first three years there were four, and for the next two years we were six.</p> <p><strong>You started with all female dancers. Why was that?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/OJ9949f3zrE?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_27_53_14.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_27_53_14.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Twyla Tharp: In those days, male dancers, as they are still today, were a rarer breed than women. A good male dancer, a male dancer frankly as strong as we were, was very difficult to come by if you couldn’t afford to pay them because there was work that was available for them in all the major companies. That’s what we said, but the truth of matter is, we didn’t want them. Martha Graham also began her first company as all women. I think it’s because in modern dance, the female force has always been a very potent one. Modern dance in this country, in any case, is generally laid at the doorstep of female creators: Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey. The next generation were men, but they spun-off from that generation of women. Erick Hawkins, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, all came from the women because it was a primarily female force. I decided that we should not, in a way, pollute the experiment. It’s like mixed tennis. It’s a different game.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_29044" style="width: 1860px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29044 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GettyImages-565851321_vG9SqZo.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29044 size-full lazyload" alt="Dancer/choreographer Twyla Tharp, 1984. (Photo by Jack Mitchell/Getty Images)" width="1860" height="1117" data-sizes="(max-width: 1860px) 100vw, 1860px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GettyImages-565851321_vG9SqZo.jpg 1860w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GettyImages-565851321_vG9SqZo-380x228.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GettyImages-565851321_vG9SqZo-760x456.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GettyImages-565851321_vG9SqZo.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Award-winning dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp, 1984. The next year, Twyla Tharp’s staging of <em>Singin’ in the Rain</em>, played at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City for 367 performances. (Photo by Jack Mitchell/Getty)</figcaption></figure></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/flAQcDASQcw?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_14_34_11.Still010-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_14_34_11.Still010-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Men and women are very different athletes, and frankly, I didn’t want to deal with the male potential, I wanted to deal with the female potential. Plus which, obviously men and women bond very differently. And at that time we wanted to begin very simply. We used no costumes, we used no music, we had no partnering. We wanted just to explore movement in time and space. And in order to keep that experiment, as you’ve called it — which I think is accurate — pure, we determined that it should be sexually oriented only as women. And then after five years, the first man was introduced. And bit by bit I came to be much more interested in technical matters like partnering and so forth, until it’s become fully integrated.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p>But our partnering, for example, evolved in an entirely different way than it would have had we had men from the beginning. Because we had to develop a strength, not only physically, but emotionally, that is very different from how most women are when they’re partnered.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/3Ud5E6Dlo78?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_22_00_29.Still002-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_22_00_29.Still002-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Twyla Tharp: I do weight training, and have for quite a while, and I’m much stronger than most women. Consequently, when I work with men, or when I’m partnered by men, I can do things no other women can do. Just in terms of counterbalances and how I support myself against him. And we can actually go into kinds of movement that haven’t been available before, simply because I’ve strengthened myself as a woman, not because I’ve weakened him.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_29040" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29040 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CFA-Company.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29040 size-full lazyload" alt="2011: Scene from "Come Fly Away," a dance revue conceived, directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp, around the songs of Frank Sinatra. The musical, set in a New York City nightclub, follows four couples as they look for love." width="2280" height="1381" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CFA-Company.jpg 2280w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CFA-Company-380x230.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CFA-Company-760x460.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CFA-Company.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2011: Scene from <em>Come Fly Away</em>, a dance revue conceived, directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp, around the songs of Frank Sinatra. The musical, set in a New York City nightclub, follows four couples as they look for love.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Can you share with us some of the most exciting moments of your career?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: With each piece that I’ve completed I have worked to make it intact, and each of them has been an equal high. It’s like children. A mother refuses to pick out one as a favorite, and I can’t do any better with the dances.</p> <p>I’m sure that as I’ve made major transitions, the rewards have been different. The rewards of dancing, myself, are very different from choreographing. The rewards of working with dancers you’ve worked intimately with is very different from dancers that belong to a company you go into. The rewards of extending your discipline and incorporating whole new elements. For example, as I begin to try to deal with film and the element of storytelling, and putting a dramatic narrative at the spine of the action, rather than simply abstract time and space, this is a very big shift, and I’m sure the rewards will be different.</p> <p>But the reward that I felt for doing a piece called <em>The Fugue</em> in 1970 will never be surpassed. Because I knew then what an accomplishment it was and how far I had come in order to be able to make counterpoint, which is what that represented. How to link two lines in relationship to one another, so that they were bound, and reinforced one another. You give your own accomplishments, and that’s what reward is about. It’s not about honors, it’s not about celebrity, it’s certainly not about money.</p> <figure id="attachment_29032" style="width: 1925px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29032 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/10_webphoto_-_hair.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29032 size-full lazyload" alt="1979: Twyla Tharp collaborated with director Milo? Forman on the films "Hair," "Ragtime" and "Amadeus."" width="1925" height="1500" data-sizes="(max-width: 1925px) 100vw, 1925px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/10_webphoto_-_hair.jpg 1925w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/10_webphoto_-_hair-380x296.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/10_webphoto_-_hair-760x592.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/10_webphoto_-_hair.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1979: Twyla Tharp collaborated with celebrated director Milo&scaron; Forman on the films <em>Hair</em>, <em>Ragtime</em> and <em>Amadeus</em>.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Was there someone who gave you a big break in your career?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: Yes. I would say that for the first five years I pretty much seized things. But Bob Joffrey saw a piece of mine called <em>The Bix Pieces</em> at the Delacorte around 1971. From that piece, he had the breadth of vision to see that what I was doing could be translated to what his dancers understood. I already knew this, because I had been studying classical ballet for a long time. But a lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet, that the two disciplines were totally separate, and if you did one, you couldn’t do the other. I’m beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things. Bob saw that what I did had a very strong balletic base to it, and he asked me to make a piece for his company. That took a real leap of faith on his part. This is what is ordinarily called a break, because it certainly is what introduced me into the commercial world. From there I made another piece for the Joffrey called <em>As Time Goes By</em>. After that I did <em>Push Comes to Shove</em> for American Ballet Theatre with Baryshnikov. Milo&scaron; Forman saw that piece and asked me if I would do the movie of <em>Hair. </em>From <em>Hair</em> I was able to begin working in pictures and to extend my career into television. Now I am very fortunate because I am in a position where I need to expand the definition of movement much beyond the parameters of what can be accomplished in dancing, per se.</p> <figure id="attachment_29052" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29052 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_rehearsal_022813_LT_047.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29052 size-full lazyload" alt="February 2013: Twyla Tharp at rehearsal." width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_rehearsal_022813_LT_047.jpg 2280w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_rehearsal_022813_LT_047-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_rehearsal_022813_LT_047-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_rehearsal_022813_LT_047.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2013: Tharp at rehearsal. That year, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tribeca Film Festival.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Did you have any idea that <em>Deuce Coupe </em>would be the hit that it was?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/v5luM6dJWTo?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_28_11_01.Still005-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_28_11_01.Still005-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/integrity/">Integrity</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Twyla Tharp: There are ideas, and then there are ideas. The piece was not without a certain amount of calculation. That’s the first piece I did for the Joffrey. I went for a season to watch the Joffrey Company and the Joffrey audience, before I made the piece. It was very distinctly tailored for both the audience and for the company. On the other hand, it is extremely arrogant and very foolish to think that you can ever outwit your audience. And all you can do is make your sincerest stab at saying, “Hey, I think you could understand what I’m trying to say if I say it this way. I think I know you well enough that this is how I need to say it for you.” I don’t consider that selling out. I consider that going halfway to meet a person, and I consider that to be what communications is all about. <em>Deuce Coupe </em>was very successful in that regard. As far as watching, I was in it. So I was too busy hopping around backstage to have any sense about what it was doing to the audience out front. I was having too much fun.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_29030" style="width: 1400px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29030 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29030 size-full lazyload" alt="Performance of "In the Upper Room." Choreography by Twyla Tharp, music by Philip Glass. In addition to choreographing for her own company, she has created dances for The Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The Martha Graham Dance Company, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Today, ballet and dance companies around the world continue to perform Miss Tharp?s works." width="1400" height="934" data-sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1.jpg 1400w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1-380x254.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><em>In the Upper Room: </em>Choreography by Twyla Tharp, music by Philip Glass. In addition to choreographing for her own company, she has created dances for The Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The Martha Graham Dance Company, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Today, dozens of ballet and dance companies around the world continue to perform Twyla Tharp’s works.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>You also elevated pop music, using the Beach Boys’ songs in that piece.</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xajho6R0Vic?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_27_47_17.Still013-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_27_47_17.Still013-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Twyla Tharp: Again, I’m not one who divides music, dance or art into various categories. Either something works, or it doesn’t. I don’t mean this, but I’m going to say it anyway: I don’t really think of pop art and serious art as being that far apart. That is a total lie. I think of them as being completely different, and I don’t think of them as being that far apart. This is one of the things that we have to accept about art is that it’s full of paradoxes and contradictions, and they’re equally true, both sides.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_29042" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-29042 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/curtain-call-c-mccullers.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-29042 lazyload" alt="2012: Curtain call at the end of Twyla Tharp's "The Princess and the Goblin" on February 19 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. (Charlie McCullers)" width="2280" height="1731" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/curtain-call-c-mccullers.jpg 2280w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/curtain-call-c-mccullers-380x289.jpg 380w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/curtain-call-c-mccullers-760x577.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/curtain-call-c-mccullers.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2012: Curtain call at the end of Twyla Tharp’s <em>The Princess and the Goblin</em> at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Since your early great work with female dancers, you’ve worked with some notable male dancers, like Baryshnikov.</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: Mischa is a great dancer.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/_yHTMJul2t8?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_00_41_15.Still007-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-1993-MasterEdit.00_00_41_15.Still007-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>It’s also, I think going to be true that the 20th century is the domain in the classical ballet of the classical male dancer in a way that it never was before. It was always about the ballerina. Part of that is because the choreographers were always men. Consequently, they shaped the roles for women as they wished them to be. When I started choreographing for classical ballet companies there had been, before me, two women who had ever made a ballet on a classical company. So, of course, I’m interested in the male dancer. Plus which, not only Mischa (Baryshnikov), but Rudi (Nureyev) was a virtuoso, and (Edward) Villella. There are these days, young men dancing who have a power and potency that we respond to because of athletics. We’re trained, unfortunately, and indoctrinated in the facts that the male physicality can be marketed in a way the female cannot. Consequently, you have the multimillion-dollar athletes in the male world, and practically none in the female. This has had an impact in the dance world. The stars there in the classical world these days are men. I was fortunate to love men, so I could put them on stage and make roles for them, and move through their bodies in a way that they enjoy doing that they responded to, as the ballerinas have to male choreographers for centuries.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_29051" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-29051 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_2015_cRuvenAfanador7.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-29051 size-full lazyload" alt="2016: Twyla Tharp has received a Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, 19 honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President's Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the 2008 Jerome Robbins Prize, and a 2008 Kennedy Center Honor." width="2280" height="2950" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_2015_cRuvenAfanador7.jpg 2280w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_2015_cRuvenAfanador7-294x380.jpg 294w, /web/20170916184224im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_2015_cRuvenAfanador7-587x760.jpg 587w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20170916184224/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_2015_cRuvenAfanador7.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2016: Twyla Tharp has received a Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, 19 honorary doctorates, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, the 2008 Jerome Robbins Prize, the 2008 Kennedy Center Honor, and The MacArthur Fellowship.</figcaption></figure></body></html> </div>    <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>How would you define modern dance?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: First of all, I would have to challenge the term, modern dance. I don’t really use that in relation to my work. I simply think of it as dancing. I think of it as moving. I think of it was involving at least as much a ballet technique as the so-called traditional modern dance technique. A lot of the issue was evolving a technique that we felt we owned. We went back to the beginning building blocks. We went back to very simple things, like walking, running, skipping, things that belong to everybody. That are not called modern dance, that are not claimed by the ballet. From there we began to see certain parallels. Then it was no big deal to, as we say, “goose it up a notch.” We could kick it up back to where the stylization had been, because we knew where it came from. But we took nothing for granted in the beginning.</p> <p><strong style="font-size: 1rem;">What turns you on so much about dance?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: It’s not so much about being turned on. It’s about being not turned off. I think it’s something everybody, not just dancers, has to do on a daily basis, or else they’re going to be in trouble. Because not only are they physically out of shape, which most people are, but they don’t know how to gauge their foundation. They don’t know their bottom line. That comes from physical work.</p> <p>I don’t think politicians should be allowed into power who are not familiar with their bodies, because that’s where our bottom line is. And I know that they would make totally different decisions if they felt responsible simply for their own bodies, for starters, for example. I think that anybody who wants to challenge their mind to operate — any artists, any writer, any economist, any entrepreneur who wants their mind to function at a peak knows they have to work physically at something, whatever, on a daily basis. It is a necessary part of the human machine. We’re a machine, and we have to be worked in the same way we have to be fed. So it’s not a question of being turned on, it’s a question of respecting a necessity.</p> <p><strong>It sounds like your mother had a lot of ambition for you.</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: My mother was a dominant force in my life. She had a very specific idea about education, which was: you should know everything about everything. It was quite simple. There was no exclusivity, and there really was no judgment, which is a good thing for someone who still thinks of themselves as a very basic American. I think that I had a very eclectic and, in a way, a very democratic education. I’m grateful for that.</p> <p>I began ear training when I was about six months old. My mother was a concert pianist, and she started all of her children with music before they were a year old. Then she began to see that I had a musical gift, and that I should be tutored outside the house, because she didn’t want it to become too much an amateur situation. She wanted it to be objectified. So I started formal piano training when I was four. From there I had little violas, and I had dancing lessons of every sort and description, and painting lessons. German wasn’t taught in the high school, so I had German. And shorthand, in case I ever needed to be a secretary or, if I didn’t need to be a secretary, at least when I went to college I would be able to take all my lectures down verbatim, and then go back and see what the professor had said. That’s the downside of my mother’s education because she made no selections, and she made it seem as though one had a lifetime to do that. That’s no true. A young person has to start making decisions for themselves at a much earlier age than an overbearing parent allows one. I think that in combination with the degree to which a childhood and the ability to socialize was taken away, was eradicated from my life. It was a stiff price to pay for the education that I received. But, you know, six of one, half-a-dozen of another. I have the wherewithal to challenge myself for my entire life. That’s a great gift. The rest of the pieces I work at reassembling for myself.</p> <p><strong>Was school an important part of your life?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: Well, it was necessary that I be valedictorian, I was valedictorian. Did I enjoy going to school? I hated it. I hated the pressure of the situation, because I had to excel. It wasn’t a choice on my part, it was expected.</p> <p>And in college I went three semesters to Pomona, and then I transferred to Barnard. I graduated in art history, and I was allowed to take, outside of the physical education department, all the dancing that I could avail myself of in New York; which, at the time, was really quite extraordinary.</p> <p>I was privileged to be able to study a year with Martha Graham, the last year she was teaching. I worked with Merce Cunningham. I worked with Erick Hawkins. Alwin Nikolais was teaching. I was able to join the Taylor Company immediately when I got out. I had classes with Antony Tudor, and I saw all the great young dancers coming up in these classes: Cynthia Gregory, Toni Lander, Violette Verdy, wonderful, wonderful dancers. All the City Ballet dancers were regulars in the classes that I took.</p> <p>Consequently, I had a very wide exposure to all of these dance elements when I was still in college. It meant a double curriculum, but it meant half the time, so there you are.</p> <p><strong>What teachers most inspired you?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: Martha was very important to me. I never studied with Balanchine, but his work was very important to me. During the course of my entire academic career, from kindergarten through a college degree, I would say only one professor. Julius Heald, at Columbia, taught a course in Flemish iconography. He seemed to be a gentleman who pursued investigation as an art form, and was very creative in his work.</p> <p>Twyla Tharp: The formal education that I received made little sense to me. I’ve used it. I’m very grateful to have had it. I use particularly the aspects of art history, and that sense of context all the time in working. I always feel a spectrum and parameters to what I do. It’s not isolated. And I’m very grateful to having had access to those disciplines. But in terms of individuals who actually inspired, I think that I’d have to say that very few of the academic people that I had access to had that power over me. Maybe it’s simply because I wasn’t that committed to geometry. Actually that’s not true; I loved geometry. I love forms; that’s part of the investigation of space.</p> <p>I can’t even say it about biology, because biology is a living thing. I loved English. I write. I have read a great deal. I enjoy books. I enjoy the use of the English language. I like the wit of languages. Even French I like. I like to be able to think in different modes. I like to be able to abuse the language a great deal, and carry on rehearsals in French, which the French dancers will lie down for, because they can’t believe what I’m saying.</p> <p>There really is nothing I ever had access to that I didn’t appreciate. I just don’t connect it to an individual. I always, somehow, knew that I was going to dance. I wouldn’t give that respect to any of these other people who were in these misguided professions, where they were not dancing.</p> <p><strong>You said that you had to excel, you didn’t have a choice, and yet you are today one of the leading figures of the day in your field. Wasn’t that a positive force, that pressure to perform?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: It has its up sides, it has its down sides. I think that anyone who’s pushed to do the very best that they can is privileged. It’s a luxury. Whether one’s coming from a poor family or a wealthy family, that kind of attention is a privilege. On the other hand, the necessity to constantly turn in an excellent performance, to be absolutely redded and wedded to this dedication and this ideal means that as a child you’re forced to learn to block out emotions. I think this is the case with a lot of overachievers. It’s not only very painful in a personal life for many, many overachievers. It also – called “over-achievers,” but I don’t believe in that concept. There’s achieving or not achieving. But, in any case, so-called over-achievers – pay for it personally. And, as important in the case of their work, which is where they’ve vested to so much of their life force, they short-circuit that as well, because they don’t know how to be able to integrate the sense of so many things that are very real, and that are very tangible. It’s just that we don’t study things like fear. We don’t study things like excitement. We don’t study things like love. We don’t study things like mourning. We try as people who have commitments and obligations to blockade those and go our course towards excellence, and that’s a lie.</p> <p><strong>You feel you’ve paid a price.</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: I’ve definitely paid a price. Everything is an exchange. Once you realize that, you feel empowered because you say, “Okay, this is what it’s going to cost. Do I want to do that? And you say, “No, I don’t want to go quite that far again.” This spring past, I was already committed to making two pieces, which I needed to do in a very short period of time. I had a major emotional shift in my life, and I was not able to take the time to address that, because I was committed. It has been very costly to me personally. I’ll never be in that position again. It was too costly. In the future, I will make certain that I commit to projects so that there’s enough breathing space for me to have an emotional life. If I need to have a day or two to mourn, I can afford to feel I can take that.</p> <p><strong>You once said that dancing is when you feel most alive. Is that true?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: When I’m in the studio, when I’m warm, when I’m what people call improvising, but what I call futzing because improvisation seems like such a… somehow institutionalized word. What I do is completely the opposite of institutionalized; it’s the messiest thing you can imagine. That when I’m in a certain state where the cerebral powers are turned off, and the body just goes according to directive that I know not of, it’s at those times that I feel a very special connection to… I feel the most right. I don’t want to become too mystic about this, but things feel as though they’re in the best order at that particular moment. It’s a short period. It goes only, at maximum, an hour. I pay a very great price to be able to maintain that. But it is, that hour that — I use the same phrase over and over again — that tells me who I am. I think it’s that way for anyone who does anything that is personal to them. There are moments where things come, and they don’t know where they’ve come from. It’s the business of discovery, and being able to have that freshness in your daily procedure that enrichens the life. It keeps the discipline that’s necessary for any artist from becoming stale.</p> <p><strong>Are you saying that confusion is the secret to creation?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: I think any scientist would probably tell you the same thing. As though I should speak for scientists. I think that probably the moments of discovery do come from a place that is not totally organized. Order is something that we already know about. Discoveries are in a place we don’t already know about.</p> <p><strong>You have to have a lot of faith in yourself to work through that confusion.</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: You have to also believe there’s something at the other side. And yes, you do have to have faith in yourself. You also have to think that you have the tools to accomplish it. You have to have that security, or you have to have that confidence.</p> <p><strong>Were there books that had an impact on you?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: No. I read a lot, but I don’t remember anything particularly impacting me. It was just something I did to try to quench my restlessness. I have a kind of unstillness about me that has to be constantly tended to. I’m hoping that what I’m talking about — this reintegration of life forces into the working procedure — will make me a little less uneasy. I think that I’ve always had to keep the walls in place, and the only way to do that is to keep yourself constantly occupied. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing good work all the time, you’re just doing busy work a lot of the time.</p> <p><strong>When you were young, were social events part of your life?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: I worked at the drive-in. From the time I was 8 years old, until I went to college, I worked at the drive-in theater my parents owned, either selling tickets, or working in the snack bar. That’s what I did weekends, evenings, whenever I wasn’t practicing, or actually in the car on the way to these lessons. So there was no social life.</p> <p><strong>Do you feel that, as an adult, your career has kept you from having a personal life?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: No. I have a son. I don’t mean to say that I haven’t had a life, I have. It’s just that I have maintained a barricade between the two that I no longer understand. I think that has created a certain amount of pain and confusion on both sides of the line. Both in terms of the work, and in terms of my personal life.</p> <p><strong>Did you feel destined to be a leader?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: Absolutely. I thought I had to make an impact on history. It was quite simple. I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission, and that’s what I set out to do. And whether or not that’s been accomplished, at least I have the common sense to know we don’t determine those things. Posterity deals with us however it sees fit. But I certainly gave it 20 years of my best shot.</p> <p><strong>There’s an ephemeral nature to dance, if it’s not recorded on film or video. Does that ever bother you?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: Nobody likes to see that which they’ve invested in disappear from the face of the earth before they’ve even died. This is not cool. I think that in the case of a piece like, <em>As Time Goes By</em>, which was done at a very particular moment in time, in the early ’70s, when this bridge building was going on between modern dance and ballet with a bit of hindsight and a bit of historical perspective because my career is now over a quarter of a century. And as the year 2000 approaches, we will have completed a century of dance. We can now almost see what that looks like. We can now see what the landmarks, in fact are. For better or for worse, <em>As Time Goes By</em> is one of those. So when you say, am I troubled by the fact that ephemerally, it is at this point in time anyway, non visible, of course. Because it is a document of our time and a document of an art form that is very important, and it just is not going to be available to future generations. This is not cool.</p> <p><strong>Has your music training had an impact in your work?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: I not only have a very intimate connection with rhythm because of… I’m sure that children who are fortunate enough to have professional parents — or parents who introduce them at a very young and emotional age to a calling that becomes their profession and their chosen passion, which seems like a contradiction in terms but is not — have an advantage over all others. The fact that my mother held me before I could really walk, and I was dealing with music, embeds it in a way that is otherwise just not possible. That very, very early training, so that rhythmically I have a sense of it. Aurally I have a sense of it. It’s connected to smell, it’s connected to taste. It’s not a dry thing. It has a great deal of living force to it.</p> <p><strong>What is the role of instinct in your creations?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: It’s the key thing. The instinct is the item that you register, you attempt to catch it and you attempt to get it as spontaneously and as quickly into a form where you can say exactly what you meant to say. The longer you struggle with it, the muddier it becomes. That’s why the business of skills and techniques is so important. Because the more of those you have, the faster you can operate.</p> <p><strong>Sometimes we have to learn the rules, so that we can break them.</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: Yes, but I think that there’s something a little perverse about that. In and of itself, breaking rules is not an art. That’s simply an extension of, and a challenge of, what the traditions are. You have to create something either with the rules, or without the rules. But simply breaking the rules, which I’ve done my fair share of, is not all that creative.</p> <p><strong>What personal characteristics are most important for fulfillment in one’s career and life?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: For me it’s always taking that next step forward. I often say, the only thing I fear more than change is no change. The business of being static makes me nuts. I have to feel that each thing I’ve learned I can push to another point next time. I’m not very good with repetition. I would rather not work than feel that repetition is the order of the day.</p> <p>I think that the challenge is always in taking with you what you understand, but pushing it to another point. I don’t believe in rushing, and dropping it off and saying this is done and over with. That to me, that form of rebellion doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve always attempted to familiarize myself with the traditions, and consider that a responsibility of the artist. I think it’s a bit facile to go in as the avant-garde traditionally is expected to do and just chop off the past and say, “Okay, now we start.” It seems a little wasteful to me. Let’s take what we’ve got and let’s push it somewhere and let’s use it because why waste all those good lessons about how the body moves. We don’t have 300 years. The classic ballet has been working that long, learning lessons of the body. Let’s hurry up and get that together, so we can go on with it.</p> <p><strong>Is the humor and wit in your work a conscious effort?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: Any comic is a tragic soul. It’s just a part of my nature. It also is true that comedy is one of the things that allows one to survive. Particularly if one has been in the process of separating off the emotions, it’s one place you can process them. I think that there’s been an element of that in the work. It’s also true that comedy is something that allows an audience to engage in art. It welcomes them in. It allows them to connect with it, and that’s always been very important to me. I have not wanted to intimidate audiences. I have not wanted my dancing to be an elitist form. That doesn’t mean I haven’t wanted it to be excellent, and absolutely everything that could be accomplished. I just have not wanted it to be elitist. I learned very early that an audience would relax and would look at things differently if they felt they could laugh with you from time to time. It became a more human thing, and I encouraged that. Plus which, there’s an energy — and dancing, after all, is about energy — that comes through the release of tension that is laughter. There’s something that sparkles in humor in a way that nothing else does. And I’m always very, very pleased to see that element when it just comes, and it’s just out.</p> <p><strong>What are you most interested in accomplishing next?</strong></p> <p>Twyla Tharp: I’m co-writing a movie. We have a first draft done. I want to get this movie produced. I will direct and choreograph it. It is a musical of a sort that hasn’t really been approached before.</p> <p>I have lots of intuitions about musicals, because I’ve worked on five pictures, and have always felt a little frustrated. I’ve worked with wonderful directors. Miloš Forman is a great director; Jim Brooks is a wonderful writer and director. It’s not that I begrudge their efforts, it’s just that they are not at heart musical souls. It’s been a long while since there has been a musical soul at the helm.</p> <p>I want to say how privileged I feel to be on the cusp of having this opportunity. I’m very, very anxious to exercise it well and curious to see what will happen.</p> <p><strong>We’re all curious as well. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.</strong></p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Twyla Tharp Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>35 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.46578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/img_9428ef80a1-copy1.jpg" data-image-caption="2011: Twyla Tharp wraps up August rehearsals with Atlanta Ballet dancers crafting her newest world premiere — "The Princess and the Goblin." (Charlie McCullers)" data-image-copyright="img_9428ef80a1-copy1" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/img_9428ef80a1-copy1-380x177.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/img_9428ef80a1-copy1-760x354.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.625" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-movinoutnyc2.jpg" data-image-caption="2002: Scene from "Movin' Out," the musical collaboration between pop legend Billy Joel and choreographer Twyla Tharp." data-image-copyright="webphoto-movinoutnyc2" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-movinoutnyc2-380x238.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-movinoutnyc2-760x475.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-New-York-April-10-1974.jpg" data-image-caption="1974: Twyla Tharp in New York. The following year, she created "Sue's Leg," one of the influential works she choreographed to classic jazz recordings, in this case by Fats Waller. (Avedon Foundation)" data-image-copyright="1974: Twyla Tharp in New York. (Avedon Foundation)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-New-York-April-10-1974-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-New-York-April-10-1974-760x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.76842105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-amadeus3.jpg" data-image-caption="1984: Twyla Tharp and director Miloš Forman with dancers from Forman's film "Amadeus." Tharp has collaborated with Forman on the films "Hair," "Ragtime" and "Amadeus."" data-image-copyright="webphoto-amadeus3" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-amadeus3-380x292.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/webphoto-amadeus3-760x584.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twylatharp-stefanchik-09_1333337041.jpg" data-image-caption="2012: Choreographer Twyla Tharp in Washington, D.C. for her Broadway musical "Come Fly Away." (Joseph Victor Stefanchik/for The Washington Post)" data-image-copyright="twylatharp-stefanchik-09_1333337041" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twylatharp-stefanchik-09_1333337041-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twylatharp-stefanchik-09_1333337041-760x570.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1968_ttinprofile_0.jpg" data-image-caption="1968: Twyla Tharp, three years after she founded her dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance." data-image-copyright="1968_ttinprofile_0" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1968_ttinprofile_0-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1968_ttinprofile_0-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2947189097104" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/482755_actual.jpg" data-image-caption="2015: Twyla Tharp celebrates her 50th anniversary in dance with an international tour and two world premiere works. (Ruven Afanador)" data-image-copyright="482755_actual" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/482755_actual-294x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/482755_actual-587x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.89868421052632" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twyla-tharp-05.jpg" data-image-caption="2004: President George W. Bush and Laura Bush present the National Medal of Arts award to Twyla Tharp. (Susan Sterner)" data-image-copyright="twyla-tharp-05" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twyla-tharp-05-380x342.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twyla-tharp-05-760x683.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.317157712305" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-4_credit-Walter-Whitman.jpg" data-image-caption="Twyla Tharp (Walter Whitman)" data-image-copyright="Twyla Tharp (Walter Whitman)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-4_credit-Walter-Whitman-289x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-4_credit-Walter-Whitman-577x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4312617702448" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/TwylaTharp_hires.jpg" data-image-caption="Twyla Tharp (Greg Gorman)" data-image-copyright="twylatharp_hires" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/TwylaTharp_hires-265x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/TwylaTharp_hires-531x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2238325281804" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla_Tharp_-_1981.jpg" data-image-caption="1981: Tharp’s work first went to Broadway in 1980 with "When We Were Very Young," followed in 1981 by her collaboration with David Byrne on "The Catherine Wheel."" data-image-copyright="twyla_tharp_-_1981" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla_Tharp_-_1981-311x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla_Tharp_-_1981-621x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.78552631578947" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-2.jpg" data-image-caption="Since graduating from Barnard College in 1963, Twyla Tharp has choreographed more than 160 works: 129 dances, twelve television specials, six Hollywood movies, four full-length ballets, four Broadway shows and two figure skating routines. (Richard Avedon; courtesy of The Richard Avedon Foundation)" data-image-copyright="twyla-tharp-2" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-2-380x298.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Twyla-Tharp-2-760x597.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2687813021703" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/wp-tharpimg057.jpg" data-image-caption="Twyla Tharp" data-image-copyright="wp-tharpimg057" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/wp-tharpimg057-300x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/wp-tharpimg057-599x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_rehearsal_022813_LT_047.jpg" data-image-caption="February 2013: Twyla Tharp at rehearsal." data-image-copyright="February 2013: Twyla Tharp at rehearsal." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_rehearsal_022813_LT_047-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_rehearsal_022813_LT_047-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2947189097104" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_2015_cRuvenAfanador7.jpg" data-image-caption="2016: Twyla Tharp has received a Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, 19 honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President's Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the 2008 Jerome Robbins Prize, and a 2008 Kennedy Center Honor." data-image-copyright="tharp_2015_cruvenafanador7" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_2015_cRuvenAfanador7-294x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp_2015_cRuvenAfanador7-587x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4872798434442" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-Getty-53029847_10.jpg" data-image-caption="June 6, 2005: Twyla Tharp at the 2005 CFDA Awards at the New York Public Library in New York City. (Evan Agostini/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="2005 CFDA Awards - Press Room" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-Getty-53029847_10-255x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Tharp-Twyla-Getty-53029847_10-511x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.84868421052632" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Sarah__Twyla_Floor_IMG_9880_Photo_by_Charlie_McCullers.jpg" data-image-caption="2016: Ballet mistress Sarah Hillmer working with Twyla Tharp to re-stage "Twyla Tharp's The Princess and the Goblin" for the Atlanta Ballet. (Charlie McCullers)" data-image-copyright="sarah__twyla_floor_img_9880_photo_by_charlie_mccullers" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Sarah__Twyla_Floor_IMG_9880_Photo_by_Charlie_McCullers-380x323.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Sarah__Twyla_Floor_IMG_9880_Photo_by_Charlie_McCullers-760x645.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5079365079365" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/pushbook-default-web.jpg" data-image-caption="In 1992, Twyla Tharp published her autobiography, "Push Comes to Shove," about her regimented childhood under the tutelage of an ambitious mother, development as a dancer and choreographer, love affairs and marriages, introduction to Hollywood, and ongoing struggle to win respect as a woman with her own company in the male-dominated dance world." data-image-copyright="pushbook-default-web" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/pushbook-default-web-252x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/pushbook-default-web-504x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/On-the-limit_Tharp_1969_001.jpg" data-image-caption="1969: In her early work from the 1960s, Tharp disassembled, analyzed, and re-created conventional jazz and modern movement." data-image-copyright="on-the-limit_tharp_1969_001" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/On-the-limit_Tharp_1969_001-380x264.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/On-the-limit_Tharp_1969_001-760x527.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_5429.jpg" data-image-caption="2007: Honorary degree recipients pictured during Princeton University Commencement with President Shirley M. Tilghman (right) and University Orator Rajiv Vinnakota (third from right) were: (from left) Muhammad Ali, LaSalle Leffall Jr., Twyla Tharp, Robert Fagles, Norman Augustine, Elizabeth Blackburn and Fritz Stern. (Denise Applewhite)" data-image-copyright="img_5429" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_5429-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_5429-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.6" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GettyImages-565851321_vG9SqZo.jpg" data-image-caption="Dancer/choreographer Twyla Tharp, 1984. (Photo by Jack Mitchell/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Dancer/Choreographer Twyla Tharp, 1984. Photo by Jack Mitchell/Getty Images." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GettyImages-565851321_vG9SqZo-380x228.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GettyImages-565851321_vG9SqZo-760x456.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2859560067682" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/cvr9780743235273_9780743235273_hr.jpg" data-image-caption="After writing her autobiography, "Push Comes to Shove," Tharp went on to write "The Creative Habit" (2003), "Learn It and Use It for Life," followed by "The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together." " data-image-copyright="cvr9780743235273_9780743235273_hr" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/cvr9780743235273_9780743235273_hr-295x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/cvr9780743235273_9780743235273_hr-591x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/curtain-call-c-mccullers.jpg" data-image-caption="2012: Curtain call at the end of Twyla Tharp's "The Princess and the Goblin" on February 19 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. (Charlie McCullers)" data-image-copyright="curtain-call-c-mccullers" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/curtain-call-c-mccullers-380x289.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/curtain-call-c-mccullers-760x577.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.74868421052632" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twylatharp-stefanchik-05_1333337041.jpg" data-image-caption="2012: Choreographer Twyla Tharp in Washington, D.C. for her Broadway musical "Come Fly Away," playing at the Kennedy Center. (Joseph Victor Stefanchik/for The Washington Post)" data-image-copyright="twylatharp-stefanchik-05_1333337041" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twylatharp-stefanchik-05_1333337041-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/twylatharp-stefanchik-05_1333337041-760x569.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.80263157894737" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CtubL0TXEAAewuI.jpg" data-image-caption="1976: "Push Comes to Shove," created in 1976 and aired in 1984, performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov and members of American Ballet Theatre, was the first work Twyla Tharp choreographed for Baryshnikov, with whom she went on to have a successful artistic partnership." data-image-copyright="ctubl0txeaaewui" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CtubL0TXEAAewuI-380x305.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CtubL0TXEAAewuI-760x610.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.60526315789474" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CFA-Company.jpg" data-image-caption="2011: Scene from "Come Fly Away," a dance revue conceived, directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp, around the songs of Frank Sinatra. The musical, set in a New York City nightclub, follows four couples as they look for love." data-image-copyright="cfa-company" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CFA-Company-380x230.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CFA-Company-760x460.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.775" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Baryshnikovmakingtvdance055.jpg" data-image-caption="1976: Twyla Tharp choreographed "Push Comes to Shove," which featured Mikhail Baryshnikov and is now thought to be the best example of the crossover ballet." data-image-copyright="baryshnikovmakingtvdance055" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Baryshnikovmakingtvdance055-380x295.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Baryshnikovmakingtvdance055-760x589.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bakersdozen_fullcast.jpg" data-image-caption="1979: “Baker's Dozen,” choreographed by Twyla Tharp. "Baker’s Dozen" received its world premiere by the Twyla Tharp Dance Company on February 15, 1979, danced by Twyla Tharp, Rose Marie Wright, Tom Rawe, Jennifer Way, Shelley Washington, Christine Uchida, Raymond Kurshals, Richard Colton, Anthony Ferro, William Whitener, France Mayotte and John Carrafa." data-image-copyright="bakersdozen_fullcast" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bakersdozen_fullcast-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bakersdozen_fullcast-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20141119AR0402.jpg" data-image-caption="November 19, 2014: Choreographer Twyla Tharp at the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song concert honoring recipent Billy Joel at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. (Amanda Reynolds)" data-image-copyright="The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song concert honors Billy Joel at Constitution Hall, November 19, 2014. Photo by Amanda Reynolds" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20141119AR0402-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20141119AR0402-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1981_avedon_tt-davidbyrne.jpg" data-image-caption="1981: Twyla Tharp ventured onto Broadway in 1981 with "The Catherine Wheel." The Talking Heads's composer and lead singer, David Byrne, wrote the musical score, commissioned by Tharp for her dance project. "The Catherine Wheel" premiered September 22, 1981, at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City." data-image-copyright="1981_avedon_tt-davidbyrne" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1981_avedon_tt-davidbyrne-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1981_avedon_tt-davidbyrne-760x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/22-wpg-twylatharp-bp.jpg" data-image-caption="October 2012: An internationally renowned choreographer was given a Key to the City by Mayor Sam Katz. Twyla Tharp, who had been in Winnipeg for the past six weeks working with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet on the Canadian premiere of her latest production, "The Princess & the Goblin," was presented with the Key at City Hall." data-image-copyright="22-wpg-twylatharp-bp" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/22-wpg-twylatharp-bp-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/22-wpg-twylatharp-bp-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.77894736842105" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/10_webphoto_-_hair.jpg" data-image-caption="1979: Twyla Tharp collaborated with director Miloš Forman on the films "Hair," "Ragtime" and "Amadeus."" data-image-copyright="10_webphoto_-_hair" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/10_webphoto_-_hair-380x296.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/10_webphoto_-_hair-760x592.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/06THARP-DANCERSWEB-master1050.jpg" data-image-caption="2015: Twyla Tharp's troupe prepares for their 50th anniversary tour." data-image-copyright="2015: Twyla Tharp's Troupe prepares for her their 50th anniversary tour." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/06THARP-DANCERSWEB-master1050-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/06THARP-DANCERSWEB-master1050-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1.jpg" data-image-caption="Performance of "In the Upper Room." Choreography by Twyla Tharp, music by Philip Glass. In addition to choreographing for her own company, she has created dances for The Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The Martha Graham Dance Company, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Today, ballet and dance companies around the world continue to perform Miss Tharp’s works." data-image-copyright="1" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/WP-GettyImages-496364570.jpg" data-image-caption="March 31, 2012: Choreographer Twyla Tharp poses for a portrait in her New York City apartment. Tharp's Broadway musical "Come Fly Away" will be played at the Kennedy Center April 18-29, 2012. (Photo by Joseph Victor Stefanchik for The Washington Post via Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="New York, New York - March 31, 2012: Choreographer, Twyla Tharp" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/WP-GettyImages-496364570-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/WP-GettyImages-496364570-760x570.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" 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</div> </div> <footer class="content-info main-footer bg-black"> <div class="container"> <div class="find-achiever" id="find-achiever-list"> <div class="form-group"> <input id="find-achiever-input" class="search js-focus" placeholder="Search for an achiever"/> <i class="icon-icon_chevron-down"></i> </div> <ul class="find-achiever-list list m-b-0 list-unstyled"> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hank-aaron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hank Aaron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kareem-abdul-jabbar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-albee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Albee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tenley-albright-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tenley Albright, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a 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Bradlee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sergey-brin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sergey Brin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carter-j-brown/"><span class="achiever-list-name">J. Carter Brown</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linda-buck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linda Buck, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-burnett/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Burnett</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George H. W. Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20170916184224/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. 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