Tharp, Twyla

Twyla Tharp is American modern dancer and choreographer. She was born 1 July 1941 in Portland, Indiana and grew up in Rialto, California. She attended Pomona College and received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Barnard College in 1963. As a child she studied ballet, tap, flamenco, baron twirling, acrobatics, and several musical instruments. While in California, she studied dance with Beatrice Collenette, Wilson Morelli, John Butler, Carmen de Lavallade, and at the Lester Horton studio. In New York, Tharp studied with Igor Schwezoff, Richard Thomas, Barbara Fallis, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Eugene Lewis (Luigi), Margaret Craske, Paul Taylor and others. Twyla Tharp began her professional career as a dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1963. In 1965 formed her own company, Twyla Tharp and Dancers (disbanded in 1988), and in 1972 founded Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation, a non-profit organization. From 1987 to 1989, Tharp served as Artistic Associate with Mikhail Baryshnikov at the American Ballet Theatre. In 1990 formed Tharp Productions and is currently at work on various projects.

She has choreographed over 100 ballets for stage, television, and motion pictures, among them: Tank Dive (1965); Re-moves (1966); After "Suite", Medley, and Dancing in the Streets of London and Paris, Continued in Stockholm and Sometimes Madrid (1969); The Fugue, and The One Hundreds (1970); Eight Jelly Rolls, and The Bix Pieces (1971); Sue's Leg (1975); Sand After All (1976); Making Television Dance (a television production by Twyla Tharp, 1977); Baker's Dozen (1979); When We Were Very Young (1980); The Catherine Wheel (1981); Nine Sinatra Songs (1982); Scrapbook Tape (1982); In the Upper Room (1986); Rules of the Game (1989); Brief Fling (1990); Sextet (1992); Demeter and Persephone (1993); How Near Heaven (1995); Movin' Out (2003, a Broadway musical based on the music of singer-songwriter Billy Joel).

During her career she has worked with prestigious set, costume, and lighting designers, and photographers such as Santo Loquasto, Kermit Love, Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta, Jennifer Tipton, Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Martha Swope, Lois Greenfield, Jack Mitchell, and Herbert Migdoll. Tharp has choreographed works for other companies including the Joffrey Ballet (for which she created her first non-Tharp company work, Deuce Coupe, 1973), American Ballet Theatre (her first work at ABT was Push Comes to Shove, 1976, for Mikhail Baryshnikov), New York City Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet, the Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and the Australian Ballet. Other works include choreography for ice skater John Curry, choreography and direction for the Broadway production of Singin' in the Rain (1985), choreography for films Hair (1978, directed by Milos Forman), Ragtime (1980, a Dino de Laurentiis film, directed by Milos Forman), Amadeus (1984, directed by Milos Forman), White Nights (1985, directed by Taylor Hackford), I'll Do Anything (directed by James L. Brooks, 1994), Dance Is a Man's Sport Too (with New York City Ballet principal Peter Martins and Pittsburg Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann, 1980), and choreography for the Broadway musical Movin' Out (based on the music of singer-songwriter Billy Joel, 2002).

Twyla Tharp's website is http://www.twylatharp.org .

From the guide to the Twyla Tharp Archive, 1963-1997, (The Ohio State University. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute.)