KEEP IT MOVING BY TWYLA THARP
https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/keep-it-moving-by-twyla-tharp/
KEEP IT MOVING : THE NEW BOOK BY DANCE LEGEND TWYLA THARP
‘Movement is life, dance is life’.
Written in a most engaging style, Twyla Tharp , living dance legend, gives advice and nuggets of wisdom for utilizing and developing endurance and a resonance of meaning and aspiration as one ages.
The book is divided into twelve chapters, each with a different title and a box which includes various exercises/ideas /suggestions/movements to do to adapt, change and grow, from Take Up Space, both a mental and bodily action and Squirm a progression of wriggling movements Tharp proposes, at least at first, doing in bed.
Now eighty one, the author of four books, Tharp is venerated not only for her marvellous choreography but also her wondrous regime of constant engagement and exercise. A Tony- award winner she is regarded as a major force in the dance world.
Ageism is not often openly acknowledged in the dance world. Tharp had noticed that her body declined once she turned sixty five. Tharp has tried to write her book, ‘for the person who is completely not familiar with their body,” she says “and I tried very hard to open up the community of dance, which can seem to the public as elitist — it actually is not.”
Tharp’s main philosophy in this book is that eventually your body wears out, at least a little. But her doctrine emphasises your body’s capability and desire, even if only in small ways, to move. Tharp has always considered what she does as partly scientific, asking what is the human body capable of? Yet looking after your mental health is just as essential. Attitude is important.
Tharp has already published two books about being an artist and preserving creativity – The Creative Habit and The Collaborative Habit.
KEEP IT MOVING contains many examples taken both from stories from her own life – there is mention of Mikhail Baryshnikov as well as Tharp’s friends such as Marilyn and Irving Lavin, and prominent people throughout history who found a ‘second wind’ in their later years. Theme include Corot, Vermeer, Hokusai, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rodin, Matisse, Monet, Henry Moore, Donald O’Connor, William Pullen, Muhammad Ali, Billie Holiday, Martin Luther King, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Carter and Agatha Christie.;
Tharp has survived major hip surgery and while writing the book was also working on a ballet “A Gathering of Ghosts” for the American Ballet Theatre. The work, created as a showpiece for Herman Cornejo, a principal celebrating his 20th anniversary with Ballet Theatre, sees Tharp examining her own dance life and the ghosts in it, and the major choreographers who influenced her such as Martha Graham, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Paul Taylor and Merce Cunningham.
There is also what Tharp calls ‘the daily miracle’ – something that pleases you during the day that you can talk about to a friend;.
Take up space. Stretch. Move your body. Get on with your second act – a third could be waiting.
https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Keep-It-Moving/Twyla-Tharp/9781982101312
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