Twyla Tharp

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Twyla Tharp. (credit: © Jack Mitchell)

(born July 1, 1941, Portland, Ind., U.S.) U.S. dancer, director, and choreographer. She danced with Paul Taylor's company from 1963 to 1965, when she formed her own troupe and began to choreograph works such as Deuce Coupe (1973), Push Comes to Shove (1976), Baker's Dozen (1979), Nine Sinatra Songs (1982), and Fait Accompli (1984). In 1988 she disbanded her company and was resident choreographer with the American Ballet Theatre (1988 – 91). She has also choreographed for the Broadway theatre (including The Catherine Wheel, 1981) and several films (including Hair, 1979, and Amadeus, 1984). Tharp is notable for her humour and particularly for having been one of the first American choreographers to use popular music.

For more information on Twyla Tharp, visit Britannica.com.

Dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp (born 1941) developed a unique style that merged ballet and modern dance technique with various forms of American vernacular dance.

Twyla Tharp was born in Portland, Indiana, July 1, 1941, the daughter of Lecile and William Tharp. Her grandparents on both sides were Quakers who farmed the land. She was named after Twila Thornburg, the reigning Pig Princess at the 89th Annual Muncie Fair, with the "i" changed to "y" because her mother always said it would look better on a marquee. Twyla was the eldest of her siblings: twin brothers and a sister, Twanette. Her mother, a piano teacher, began giving Twyla lessons when the child was one and one-half years old.

When Tharp was eight years old the family moved to the desert town of Rialto, California, where her parents built and operated the local drive-in movie theater. The house her father built in Rialto included a playroom with a practice section featuring a built-in tap floor, ballet barres, and closets filled with acrobatics mats, batons, ballet slippers, pointe shoes, castanets, tutus, and capes for matador routines. Her well-known tendency to consider herself a workaholic and a perfectionist began in her heavily-scheduled childhood.

Tharp began her dance lessons at the Vera Lynn School of Dance in San Bernardino, then studied with the Mraz sisters. She also studied violin, piano, and drums, plus Flamenco, castanets, and cymbals with Enrico Cansino, an uncle of Rita Hayworth, and baton twirling with Ted Otis, an ex-world champion. At age 12 she began studying ballet with Beatrice Collenette, who trained and danced with Anna Pavlova. She attended Pacific High School and spent her summers working at the family drive-in.

Tharp entered Pomona College as a freshman, moving to Los Angeles that summer to continue her dance training with Wilson Morelli and John Butler. At mid-term of her sophomore year she transferred to Barnard College in New York. She studied ballet with Igor Schwezoff at American Ballet Theater, then Richard Thomas and his wife, Barbara Fallis. She began attending every dance concert she could and studied with Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Eugene "Luigi" Lewis, the jazz teacher. In 1962 she married Peter Young, a painter whom she had met at Pomona College. Her second husband was Bob Huot, an artist. Both marriages ended in divorce. Huot and Tharp had one son, Jesse, born 1971.

Tharp graduated from Barnard in 1963 with a degree in art history. She made her professional debut that year with the Paul Taylor company, billed as Twyla Young. In the following year, at age 23, she formed her own company, which began experimenting with movement in an improvisatory manner. For the first five years Tharp and her dancers struggled, but by the early 1970s she began to be recognized for a breezy style of dance that added irreverent squiggles, shrugged shoulders, little hops, and jumps to conventional dance steps, a technique she called the "stuffing" of movement phrases. She also made dances to every kind of music and composer from Bach, Haydn, and Mozart to the early American jazz of Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton; American pop, including the songs of Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon, the Beach Boys, Bruce Springsteen, and David Byrne; and the experimental composers, including Philip Glass.

Among the most innovative of her early pieces is "The Fugue" (1970) for four dancers, set to the percussive beat of their own feet on a miked floor. In 1971 she choreographed "Eight Jelly Rolls" to music by Morton and The Red Hot Peppers and "The Bix Pieces" to music by Bix Beiderbecke. Tharp performed as a member of her company until the mid-1980s when she stopped dancing to concentrate on her many projects for television and film, as well as for her company. She returned to performing in 1991. Other works for her company include "Sue's Leg" (1975), "Baker's Dozen" (1979), "In The Upper Room" (1986), and "Nine Sinatra Songs" (1982).

In 1973 she created a work for the Joffrey Ballet, her first for a company other than her own and her first work for dancers on point. Tharp used the Joffrey dancers and her own company in a work entitled "Deuce Coupe, " set to music by the Beach Boys. The setting was created on stage each night by teenage graffiti artists. A huge success, Tharp went on to create "As Time Goes By" (1973) for the Joffrey; five works for American Ballet Theater, including "Push Comes to Shove" (1976) and "Sinatra Suite" (1984), both with leading roles for Mikhail Baryshnikov; "Brahms-Handel" (1984) in collaboration with Jerome Robbins for New York City Ballet; and "Rules of the Game" (1989) for the Paris Opera Ballet. Tharp's dual work for her own company and for the ballet troupes made her among the first to demand a "cross-over" dancer to perform her choreography, one who would be equally at home in ballet and modern dance technique.

With the success of "Deuce Coupe, " Tharp was everywhere in demand for her irreverent, funky-look choreography that had appeal to the widest array of audiences that had ever watched dance performances in the United States. She made her first television program for the PBS series Dance in America (1976), continuing in the medium with "Making Television Dance" (1980), "Scrapbook Tapes" (1982), "The Catherine Wheel" (1983) for BBC, and the television special "Baryshnikov by Tharp" (1985). Her film work began in 1978 with the Milos Forman film "Hair, " followed by "Ragtime" (1980), "Amadeus" (1984), and "White Nights" (1985). Tharp directed two full-evening productions on Broadway: "The Catherine Wheel" (1981) and the stage adaptation of the film "Singing in the Rain" (1985).

By 1987 the strain of raising money to keep her dancers on salary and the attraction of the various projects that interested her forced her to disband her own company. She was invited to join American Ballet Theater (ABT) as artistic associate with Baryshnikov. When he departed ABT in 1989, she left as well, taking her ballets from the ABT repertory. After that her works were set on the Boston Ballet and the Hubbard Street Dance Company, based in Chicago.

After leaving ABT, Tharp embarked on a variety of endeavors that kept her in the forefront of American dance, including an autobiography, Push Comes to Shove, published in 1992; a series of tours with pick-up companies of dancers recruited mainly from the ballet troupes where she had worked; and a new work for the Boston Ballet, which premiered in April 1994. She was the recipient of many awards, including a creative citation in dance from Brandeis University (1972), the MacArthur "Genius" Award (1992), and five honorary doctorates.

In 1994, Tharp continued to tour nationally and internationally in the mid-90's with her indispensable assistant, Shelley Washington Whitman, often working without a company of her own or a permanent support base. In 1996, she choreographed Born Again, a trio of new dances performed by a group of thirteen young unknowns, selected in a series of nationwide auditions and trained by Tharp and Whitman. She returned to the ABT in 1995 with a successful revisions of two recent works, "Americans We" (1995), and "How Near Heaven" (1995), and a new work, "The Elements."

Further Reading

For additional information on Twyla Tharp see her autobiography, Push Comes to Shove (1992). For interesting interviews see Elinor Rogosin, The Dance Makers: Conversations with American Choreographers (1980) and Suzanne Weil, Contemporary Dance (1978). Selected works about Tharp include Joan Acocella, "Balancing Act, " in Dance Magazine (October 1990); Arlene Croce, Afterimages (1977), Going to the Dance (1982), and Sightlines (1987); Marcia Siegel, The Shapes of Change (1979); and Barbara Zuch, "Tharp Moves, " Dance Magazine (January 1992). Her work has been extensively reviewed in The New York Times, Village Voice, New Yorker Magazine, and Dance Magazine. The Twyla Tharp Archives are kept at the Robert E. Lee Theater Research Institute at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

Tharp, Twyla (b Portland, Ind., 1 July 1941). US dancer, choreographer, and company director. She grew up in California, where her parents ran a drive-in movie, thus exposing the young Tharp to the kind of American popular culture she would later incorporate into her choreography. She studied music and dance as a child, taking ballet classes with Beatrice Collenette, once a member of Pavlova's company. She also studied baton-twirling and Hawaiian tap in her youth. She studied art history at Barnard College in New York. She studied ballet with Igor Schwezoff, Richard Thomas, and Margaret Craske, modern dance with Graham, Nikolais, Cunningham, and Taylor, and jazz with Matt Mattox. From 1963 to 1964 she danced in Paul Taylor's company, but quickly struck out on her own as a choreographer, founding her own company in 1965. Her first dance concert, all of seven minutes long, took place at Hunter College on 29 Apr. 1965; it was a performance of Tank Dive, choreographed for herself and four non-dancers. Initially she was part of the avant-garde New York scene; for the first five years her choreography was performed without music and she set her works in unusual spaces (out of doors, in art galleries, in gymnasiums). One of her first creations, Re-Moves, performed at the Judson Memorial Church, ended with the dancers inside a giant box, invisible to the audience. Gradually, however, as she began to use music and to absorb elements of popular culture into her choreography her work became more mainstream. In 1973 Robert Joffrey invited her to work with his company; the result was the phenomenally successful Deuce Coupe. Set to songs by the Beach Boys, it marked a turning point in Tharp's career and also proved that modern dance had an important role to play in a ballet company. Tharp's loose-limbed, jazz-influenced style gave classically trained dancers a new performing attitude, and they loved it. The public responded to her choice of music, from the jazz of The Bix Pieces, Eight Jelly Rolls, Sue's Leg, and Baker's Dozen, to the smoochy romance of Nine Sinatra Songs. Her debut with American Ballet Theatre, Push Comes to Shove (1976), was a tailor-made showcase for Baryshnikov, redefining ballet's supreme classicist as a roguish bowler-hatted womanizer. It was one of the biggest successes in ABT's history. Later, the exhilarating speed and aggressive physicality of works such as In the Upper Room brought a new public to dance. From 1988 to 1990 she suspended her own company in order to take up a position as artistic associate at American Ballet Theatre. She also worked with the Paris Opera Ballet, and for the Royal Ballet broke new ground with Mr Worldly Wise, a full-length ‘themed’ ballet, loosely based on the life of Rossini. As a choreographer, Tharp has always shown a unique ability to draw on a wide range of influences, from everyday movement to the most virtuosic ballet step, but running through her work is a keen sense of ‘showbiz’ and the need to entertain and communicate with an audience. She created three full-length dance shows on Broadway: When We Were Very Young (mus. John Simon, 1980), The Catherine Wheel (mus. David Byrne, 1981), and Movin' Out (mus. Billy Joel, 2002).

A list of her ballets includes Tank Dive (1965), Re-Moves (1966), After Suite (1969), Medley (1969), Group Activities (1969), Dancing in the Streets of London and Paris, Continued in Stockholm and Sometimes Madrid (1969), The Fugue (1970), The One Hundreds (1970), Eight Jelly Rolls (mus. Jelly Roll Morton, 1971), The Bix Pieces (mus. Bix Beiderbecke, 1971), The Raggedy Dances (mus. Scott Joplin, Mozart, 1972), Deuce Coupe (mus. Beach Boys, Joffrey Ballet, 1973), As Time Goes By (mus. Haydn, Joffrey Ballet, 1973), In the Beginnings (mus. Moss, 1974), Sue's Leg (mus. Fats Waller, 1975), Ocean's Motion (mus. Chuck Berry, 1975), Push Comes to Shove (mus. Haydn and Joseph Lamb, American Ballet Theatre, 1976), Give and Take (mus. various, 1976), Once More, Frank (mus. recordings by Frank Sinatra, 1976), Happily Ever After (mus. traditional American country music, Joffrey Ballet, 1976), After All (mus. Albinoni, for ice skater John Curry, 1976), Mud (mus. Mozart, 1977), Baker's Dozen (mus. Willie ‘the Lion’ Smith, 1979), Brahms' Paganini (mus. Brahms, 1980), Short Stories (mus. Supertramp, Bruce Springsteen, 1980), Third Suite (mus. Bach, 1980), Nine Sinatra Songs (mus. recordings by Frank Sinatra, 1982), Bad Smells (mus. Glenn Branca, 1982), Telemann (mus. Telemann, 1983), The Golden Section (mus. David Byrne, 1983), Bach Partita (mus. Bach, American Ballet Theatre, 1983), Brahms/Handel (with Robbins, mus. Brahms, New York City Ballet, 1984), Sinatra Suite (mus. recordings by Frank Sinatra, American Ballet Theatre, 1984), The Little Ballet (mus. Glazunov, American Ballet Theatre, 1984), In the Upper Room (mus. Glass, 1986), Quartet (mus. Terry Riley, American Ballet Theatre, 1989), Bum's Rush (mus. Dick Hyman, American Ballet Theatre, 1989), Rules of the Game (mus. Bach, Paris Opera Ballet, 1989), Brief Fling (mus. Colombier, Grainger, American Ballet Theatre, 1990), Grand Pas: Rhythm of the Saints (mus. Paul Simon, Paris Opera Ballet, 1991), The Men's Piece (1991), Octet (mus. Edgar Meyer, 1991), Sextet (mus. Bob Telson, Peter Melnick, 1992), Demeter and Persephone (mus. various, klezmer, Martha Graham company, 1993), Pergolesi (mus. Pergolesi, White Oak Dance Project, 1993), Waterbaby Bagatelles (mus. various, Boston Ballet, 1994), How Near Heaven (mus. Britten, American Ballet Theatre, 1995), Americans We (mus. Donald Hunsberger, ABT, 1995), Jump Start (mus. Wynton Marsalis, ABT, 1995), Mr Worldly Wise (mus. Rossini, Royal Ballet, 1995), Sweet Fields (mus. William Billings, 1996), Heroes (mus. Glass, 1996), 66 (mus. various, 1996), The Storyteller (mus. Kiyong Kim, Australian Ballet, 1997), Roy's Joys (mus. Roy Eldridge, 1997), Known By Heart (mus. Mozart, Donald Knaack, Steve Reich, ABT, 1998), Diabelli Variations (mus. Beethoven, 1999), Grosse Sonate (mus. Beethoven, 1999), The Beethoven Seventh (mus. Beethoven, New York City Ballet, 2000). She also choreographed and directed the Broadway musical Singin' in the Rain (1985) and did the choreography for the films Hair (1979), Ragtime (1981), Amadeus (1984), and White Nights (1985). In 2002 she conceived, choreographed and directed the Tony Award-winning Movin' Out (mus. Billy Joel) on Broadway. Author of autobiography Push Comes to Shove (New York, 1992).

Twyla Tharp
2004
Born	July 1, 1941 (1941-07-01) (age 68) Portland, Indiana, USA
Occupation	Choreographer, dancer
Years active	1960s-present
Official website

Twyla Tharp (born July 1, 1941) is an American dancer and choreographer. She has won Emmy and Tony awards, and currently works as a choreographer in New York City.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early years 1.2 Career 2 Honors and awards 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Biography

Early years

Tharp was born in Portland, Indiana and was named for Twila Thornburg, the "Pig Princess" of the 89th Annual Muncie Fair in Indiana. Tharp's family (including younger sister Twanette, twin brothers Stanley and Stanford, mother Lecile and father William) moved to Rialto, California in 1951,^[1] where her parents opened a drive-in movie theater on the corner of Acacia and Foothill, the major east-west artery in Rialto and the path of Route 66.^[2] During this period she worked at the drive-in, studied at the Vera Lynn School of Dance and attended Pacific High School in San Bernardino. Tharp admitted that in her early years she had no time for social life because of the need to work in her spare time since the age of 8 years old.^[3]

Tharp attended Pomona College in California, but transferred to Barnard College in New York City. It was in New York that she studied with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. She graduated from Barnard with a degree in art history in 1963 and joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company. From 1965 to 1970 she explored and developed her ideas and in 1971 she formed her own company, called Twyla Tharp Dance.

Career

Twyla Tharp is the first choreographer to create a dance work, Deuce Coupe, that utilized both modern and ballet techniques. She is the creator of what is now known as the “cross-over” ballet. Tharp's work often utilizes classical music, jazz and contemporary pop music.

From 1971 to 1988 Twyla Tharp Dance performed original works around the world. In 1973 she created a dance titled Deuce Coupe, for The Joffrey Ballet, which is considered to be the first ever “cross-over” ballet. In 1988, Twyla Tharp Dance merged with American Ballet Theatre, where Tharp created more than a dozen works. Since that time Tharp has choreographed dances for many companies including The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance and The Martha Graham Dance Company. In 1991, Tharp regrouped her company Twyla Tharp Dance and created a program with Mikhail Baryshnikov called Cutting Up, which went on to appear in 28 cities over a two month period. From 1999 to 2003, Twyla Tharp Dance toured internationally.

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 at the Winter Garden, and her 1985 staging of Singin' in the Rain, which played at the Gershwin for 367 performances, followed by an extensive national tour. In 2002, Tharp premiered Billy Joel's award-winning dance musical Movin' Out on Broadway, and a national tour opened in January, 2004. The recipient of a 2003 Tony Award for Movin' Out, Tharp was also honored with the 2003 Astaire Award; the Drama League Award for Sustained Achievement in Musical Theater; and both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography. Movin' Out ran for 1331 performances on Broadway. In 2005, Tharp created a show titled The Times They Are a-Changin', to the music of Bob Dylan. After a successful run in San Diego, the New York show closed after 35 previews and 28 performances.

Tharp collaborated with directors Milos Forman on Hair (1978), Ragtime (1980) and Amadeus (1984); with Taylor Hackford on White Nights (1985) and with James Brooks on I'll Do Anything (1994).

Her television credits include choreographing "Sue's Leg" for the inaugural episode of the PBS program Dance in America, co-producing and directing Making Television Dance, which won the Chicago International Film Festival Award; and directing The Catherine Wheel for BBC Television. Tharp co-directed the television special "Baryshnikov by Tharp," which won two Emmy Awards as well as the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Director Achievement.

Tharp wrote her first book in 1992, the autobiography Push Comes to Shove. Her second book, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life was published in October 2003.

Tharp continues to create works and lecture around the world.

Honors and awards

She received two Emmy Awards, 19 honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President’s Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, and numerous grants including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

At the 1982 Barnard College commencement ceremonies, Tharp's alma mater awarded her its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction.

She received the Tony Award for Best Choreography and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography for the 2002 musical Movin' Out. She received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Choreography for the musical Singin' in the Rain.

In 2007, Tharp received honoris causa degrees from Duke and Princeton Universities.

She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree for 2008.^[4]

Tharp was inducted into the Academy of Achievement in 1993.^[5]

1965 Walter Gutman

1969 George Irwin, The Lepercq Foundation

1970 Foundation for the Contemporary Performing Arts, 1970 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The Emma A. Sheafer Trust, 1970 - 1981, 1985

1971 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1971, 1974 National Endowment for the Arts Choreographers Fellowship, 1971, 1973 New York State Council on the Arts Annual Support, 1971 - 1986

1972 Brandeis University, Creative Arts Citation,

1973 National Endowment for the Arts Annual Support, 1973 - 1986

1974 Creative Artists Public Service Program Edward John Nobel Foundation New York Public Library Dance Collection The Place Trust, London The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 1974 - 1978, 1982, 1983, 1986

1975 Eight Jelly Rolls, 1st in Festival in Video and Modern Dance Video Certificate of Honor Making Television Dance, Modern Dance Video Certificate of Merit

1976 Mademoiselle Magazine, Mademoiselle Magazine Award Exxon Corporation, 1976, 1980, 1982 - 1984, 1986

1977 The Green Fund, 1977, 1980, 1981 National Endowment for the Arts Challenge Grant, 1977, 1985 The Shubert Foundation, 1977, 1978, 1980-1986

1978 Dance Film Association, 7th Annual Dance Video and Film Festival Honorary Degree, California Institute of the Arts Silver Satellite Award for Making Television Dance, American Women in Radio & Television, The Ford Foundation, 1978, 1980 The Ford Motor Company, 1978 - 1985 The Surdna Foundation, 1978, 1980, 1985

1979 Soho Arts Second Annual Awards, The Soho Weekly News Honorary Degree, Bucknell University The Scherman Foundation, 1979, 1980, 1982 - 1985 United Artists The David Merrick Arts Foundation Mobil Foundation, Inc., 1979, 1981 - 1986

1980 Honorary Degree, Bates College Dance Educators of America Award for Making Television Dance Screening and Red Ribbon Award for Making Television Dance The Booth Ferris Foundation Chase Manhattan Bank, 1980 – 1982 Con Ed, 1980 - 1985 Morgan Guarantee Trust, 1980 - 1981, 1983 - 1984, 1986 The Jerome Robbins Foundation, 1980, 1983

1981 Film Library Association American Film Festival Honorary Degree, Bard College Honorary Degree, Brown University Dance Magazine Award, Dance Magazine Dance Film Award for Making Television Dance, Chicago International Film Festival Indiana Arts Award, Indiana Arts Commission Citibank, 1981 - 1986 Doll Foundation, 1981 - 1986 Weil Foundation Norman and Rosita Winston Foundation Rockefeller Foundation

1982 Medal of Distinction, Barnard College Chemical Bank, 1982 - 1986 National Corporate Fund for Dance, 1982 – 1985 Robert Sterling Clark Foundation Ida and William Rosenthal Foundation, 1982, 1986 New York Telephone, 1982 – 1985

1983 Spirit of Achievement Award, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Honorary Degree, Williams College Indiana Arts Award, Indiana Arts Commission The Thorne Foundation Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, 1983 - 1984, 1986 C.L. Glazer Trust The Klingenstein Fund, Warner Communications

1984 Mayor's Award of Honor for Arts and Culture, Edward I. Koch, New York, N.Y. Dance Masters of America 1984 Choreographer's Award Arthur Andersen and Company, 1984 - 1986 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Booth Ferris Foundation Brooklyn Union and Gas Merrill Lynch, 1984, 1986 New York Times Company Foundation, 1984 - 1986

1985 Emmy Awards for Baryshnikov by Tharp choreography and co- direction, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for Baryshnikov by Tharp Indiana Arts Award, Indiana Arts Commission APA Trucking, The Charles Engelhard Foundation Corporate Property Investors Hausman Belding Foundation Gerald D. Hines Interests GFI/Knoll International NBC, 1985 - 1986 Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, 1985, 1986 Zayre Corporation,

1986 University Medal of Excellence, Columbia University Bankers Trust Cadillac Fairview MCA Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company Ridgewood Energy Corporation,

1987 Honorary Degree, Indiana University Honorary Degree, Pomona College Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement

1988 Honorary Degree, Hamilton College Honorary Degree, Skidmore College

1989 Honorary Degree, Marymount Manhattan College Lions of the Performing Arts Award, New York Public Library

1990 Samuel M. Scripps Award, American Dance Festival

1991 Laurence Olivier Award for In the Upper Room, Laurence Olivier Foundation Wexner Foundation Award, The Ohio State University Wexner Center for the Arts

1992 MacArthur Fellowship, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Ruth Page Visiting Arts, Harvard University, 1992-1993

1993 Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement Woman of Achievement, Barnard College Inducted, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

1996 Arts Award, Dickinson College Honorary Degree, Ball State University Distinguished Artist Award, International Society For The Performing Arts

1997 American Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Letters

1998 Trust for Mutual Understanding

1999 MOCA Award to Distinguished Women In The Arts, Museum Of Contemporary Art

2000 The Doris Duke Awards for New Work

2001 Women’s Project & Productions Exceptional Achievement Award

2002 New York Awards Lifetime Achievement

2003 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Choreography MOVIN’ OUT Tony Award Best Choreography MOVIN’ OUT Drama League Outstanding Achievement Award for Musical Theatre TDF/Astaire Award Best Choreographer MOVIN’ OUT Indiana Living Legend, Indiana Historical Society Glamour Woman of the Year Award Outstanding Contribution to the Arts Award North Carolina School of the Arts

2004 National Medal of Arts Vietnam Veterans of America President’s Award for Excellence in the Arts Independent Reviewers of New England Award Best Choreography MOVIN’ OUT-Broadway in Boston Goddard Space Flight Center’s Center Director’s Colloquium Citation for Enlightening, Creative and Thought-Provoking Presentation

2005 Best Choreography MOVIN’ OUT Touring Broadway Awards Jane Addams Medal for Distinguished Service presented by Rockford College

2006 Princess Grace Award – Outstanding Artistry Critics Circle Dance Award Outstanding Choreography – MOVIN’ OUT London

2007 Honorary Degree Duke University, Durham, North Carolina Honorary Degree Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 2007 Touring Broadway Award: Best Choreography for a touring show for MOVIN’ OUT.

2008 The Jerome Robbins Prize The Kennedy Center Honors

2009 US News & World Report: listed on "America's Best Leaders"

See also

Brahms/Handel, collaborative ballet with Jerome Robbins

References

1. ^ James Hebert (2006-01-29). "Twyla Tharp found a kindred spirit to inspire "The Times They Are A-Changin'" at Old Globe". The San Diego Union-Tribune. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060129/news_lz1a29tharp.html. Retrieved 2009-02-16. 
2. ^ Adams, John Anthony (2004). Rialto. Images Of America. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 85. ISBN 0738528927. http://books.google.com/books?id=54G6gAXOJFwC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=tharp+drive-in&source=web&ots=4bn_DSTnSl&sig=N889LqhZylRpL7-5SlKq28dVb5E&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result. Retrieved 2008-07-23. 
3. ^ "Interview: Twyla Tharp Dancer and Choreographer". Academy of Achievement. 2007. pp. 3. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tha0int-3. Retrieved 2008-08-13. 
4. ^ Andrew Gans (9 September 2008). "Streisand, Freeman, Tharp, Jones, Townshend and Daltrey Are 2008 Kennedy Center Honorees". Playbill. http://www.playbill.com/news/article/121119.html. Retrieved 2009-02-16. 
5. ^ "Twyla Tharp Biography". Academy of Achievement. 2007. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tha0bio-1. Retrieved 2008-09-30. 

External links

Dance portal

• Twyla Tharp official site
• Twyla Tharp at the Internet Broadway Database
• Twyla Tharp at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography Grover Dale (1969) · Ron Field (1970) · Michael Bennett / Donald Saddler (1971) · Patricia Birch / Jean Erdman (1972) · Bob Fosse (1973) · Patricia Birch (1974) · George Faison (1975) · Bob Avian / Michael Bennett (1976) · Peter Gennaro (1977) · Bob Fosse (1978) · Bob Avian / Michael Bennett (1979) · Tommy Tune (1980) · Gower Champion (1981) · Tommy Tune / Thommie Walsh (1983) · Bob Fosse (1986) · Michael Smuin (1988) · Tommy Tune (1990) · Tommy Tune (1991) · Susan Stroman (1992) · Wayne Cilento (1993) · Jane Elliott / Kenneth MacMillan (1994) · Savion Glover (1996) · Ann Reinking (1997) · Garth Fagan (1998) · Matthew Bourne (1999) · Susan Stroman (2000) · Susan Stroman (2001) · Susan Stroman (2002) · Twyla Tharp (2003) · Kathleen Marshall (2004) · Jerry Mitchell (2005) · Kathleen Marshall (2006) · Andy Blankenbuehler (2007) · Rob Ashford (2008) · Peter Darling (2009)

v • d • e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography Tony Charmoli (1976) · Ron Field (1977) · Ron Field (1978) · Kevin Carlisle (1979) · Alan Johnson (1980) · Walter Painter (1981) · Debbie Allen (1982) · Debbie Allen (1983) · Michael Smuin (1984) · Twyla Tharp (1985) · Walter Painter (1986) · Michael Peters / Dee Dee Wood (1987) · Alan Johnson (1988) · Walter Painter / Paula Abdul (1989) · Paula Abdul / Dean Barlow / Michael Darrin (1990) · Debbie Allen (1991) · Paul Taylor (1992) · Michael Peters (1993) · Linda Talcott (1994) · Ulysses Dove (1995) · Anita Mann / Charonne Mose (1996) · Marguerite Derricks / Sarah Kawahara (1997) · Marguerite Derricks / Peggy Holmes (1998) · Judith Jamison / Marguerite Derricks (1999) · Rob Marshall (2000) Complete list: (1955–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present)

v • d • e Tony Award for Best Choreography Susan Stroman (2001) · Rob Ashford (2002) · Twyla Tharp (2003) · Kathleen Marshall (2004) · Jerry Mitchell (2005) · Kathleen Marshall (2006) · Bill T. Jones (2007) · Andy Blankenbuehler (2008) · Peter Darling (2009) Complete list: (1947-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)

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