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Twyla Tharp may have named her new book The Creative Habit, but there's nothing routine about the way this maverick choreographer and dancer approaches the creative process, as her groundbreaking, genre-shattering works demonstrate. Tharp will talk about The Creative Habit, and some of her own creative habits, at a discussion and booksigning on Oct. 24 at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose.
The program, titled "Fostering Creativity: Thinking on Your Toes," will include a dessert and coffee reception before the discussion. Tharp will sign her new book after the talk. The event is presented by the Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley, Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley and the Mexican Heritage Corporation.
Tharp is known for her free-spirited style of choreography, which matches her eclectic taste in music--Johannes Brahms, the Beach Boys and Scott Joplin may share nothing else in common, but they have all inspired Tharp to choreograph a work to their compositions.
Tharp has a degree in art history from Barnard College, but she began to seriously pursue dance while she was in college, studying with some of the greats, including Martha Graham and Paul Taylor at the American Ballet Theatre school. Her initial degree may not have been in dance, but during her career, Tharp has gone on to receive 17 honorary doctorates and a MacArthur Fellowship.
Although Tharp danced with the Paul Taylor Company for a couple of years after her college graduation, she soon left to found her own dance company and quickly made her mark as a visionary in the dance world, unorthodox among the avant-garde movement and classical schools alike. Her creations blended classical ideals and techniques with a modern sensibility that demonstrated unique insight and humor.
Tharp has choreographed more than 125 dances, many for prestigious companies, including the Joffrey Ballet and the Royal Ballet. She has choreographed five movies, including Hair, Ragtime and Amadeus, and she has won two Emmys. Tharp has collaborated with such diverse artists as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Philip Glass, Wynton Marsalis and David Byrne.
The full title of Tharp's new book, which was published earlier this month, is The Creative Habit: How to Learn It, How to Trust It, How to Use It. The book offers a guide to tapping into and encouraging one's creative spirit, offering examples with personal recollections and anecdotes from Tharp's life. Although it's not a memoir (Tharp's autobiography, Push Comes to Shove, was published in 1992), Tharp uses her experiences to illustrate one way--obviously, a very successful way--to live a creative life.
Twyla Tharp speaks and signs her book Oct. 24, noon, at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose. Tickets are $10 for Commonwealth Club members and $15 for nonmembers. For more information, call 800.847.7730 or visit www.commonwealthclub.org/sv.
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