Solitude is an unavoidable part of creativity. Self-reliance is a happy by-product.
Interpretation
Solitude fosters creativity and self-reliance, leading to personal happiness.
Twyla Tharp's quote emphasizes that solitude is essential for the creative process. In moments of being alone, individuals can tap into their inner thoughts and ideas, ultimately leading to a greater self-reliance and a sense of happiness that stems from creating something original and meaningful.
In practice
During a workshop on creativity, one could use this quote to encourage participants to embrace their alone time for better artistic expression.
Do I watch dancers as people? Yes, absolutely. Do I watch really good dancers for specifically who they are? Absolutely, because how they move best and how they look best is going to be most familiar to them, and not necessarily to me.
I am still pushing the edge of what my body can do.
No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life.
I grew up in a drive-in theater, from the time I was 8, working in a snack bar watching four features every week. It was silent theater in the sense that this was a drive-in, which meant that I often saw the films going with no sound. But I learned to tell stories through action.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft.
Every time you work on a project, it's a little vacation from the project you're working on the other 23 hours. That's the thing - it replenishes you to do something else.
I have a lot of confidence, but little Self-Esteem. This has given me a tremendous creative spark because it forced me to keep proving myself.
Usually when I start a new project there's a fear of the unknown; maybe it's a band I've never been in the studio with before. People are so different. It's almost like you need to go through the process, discover and unlock what it is that makes that band that band. And a lot of times they don't know it.
Coming up with ideas is the easiest thing on earth. Putting them down is the hardest.
Share what you do profusely, because it will be remixed by others into something new, rich and strange.
As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood.
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