Twyla Tharp Dance example essay topic
400 words
TWYLA THARP 1. Ty wla Tharp is a famous American dancer, director and choreographer, who has created more than 125 dances, choreographed 5 Hollywood movies and has directed and choreographed 2 Broadway shows 2. She was born in 1941 in Portland, Indiana (United States) but moved to Southern California with her parents at a young age. She moved to New York City shortly after she left home and is still residing there. 3. Twyla Tharp lives in the 21st century era. 4. Twyla Tharp is considered the modern mistress of complex movement because she is especially known for her audacious, loose-limbed and immensely popular choreography, which combines different elements from ballet, jazz and modern dance. She choreographed a ballet called "Push comes to shove" for Mikhail Baryshnikov, as well as hit movies such as "Hair", "Ragtime", "White nights" and "Amadeus" she also choreographed the Broadway revival of singing in the rain. Her playful and somewhat unpredictable works, highly abstract schemes and helping to renew the spirit of modern dance has led Twyla to worldwide success. 5. At the age of four Twyla began dance classes and shortly after was studying every style of dance available: ballet, tap, jazz, modern.
Her mother wanted her to become accomplished in as many fields as possible so she had her take baton lessons, violin and viola lessons, drum lessons, as well as classes in shorthand, French and painting. Twyla enlisted into Barnard College in New York City but her real passion was the dance classes that she took off campus. In New York, she was able to study at the American ballet theatre school with a lot of the great masters of modern dance including Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Martha graham and Eric Hawkins. After graduating at Barnard College Twyla resolved to make a career in dance.
In 1963 she joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company but left after two years to start her own Dance Company: Twyla Tharp Dance. 7. Twyla Tharp incorporates a lot of modern dance styles into her choreography and we are learning about modern dance styles in class. She also combines all aspects of classical ballet with contemporary and modern dance to create groundbreaking choreography and in our topic this term we are breaking free from the confines of ballet.
