The only thing I fear more than change is no change. The business of being static makes me nuts.
Interpretation
Embracing change is essential, while stagnation is more frightening.
In this quote, Twyla Tharp expresses her deep-seated fear of stagnation. She suggests that the absence of change is more intimidating than the challenges that come with change itself, highlighting a belief that growth and progress are integral aspects of life and creativity. The 'business of being static' indicates a strong aversion to a lack of movement or evolution, showcasing that she thrives in dynamic environments where growth and adaptation are constant.
In practice
In a motivational speech about embracing new opportunities.
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.
Because many advances have happened, we've lost the urgency (and that's just human nature) that we had before, when we couldn't vote, couldn't use mass transportation, or drink from the fountains.
In a moment the ashes are made, but a forest is a long time growing.
It is in revolutionary periods that the culmination of previous trends and the beginning of new ones appear.
The only fight worth fighting is to give all children equal opportunities regardless of race or gender, to judge individuals on their qualities and not their backgrounds. The victory won't come when nobody feels able to voice racist abuse, but when nobody thinks of doing so in the first place.
No one makes a revolution by himself; and there are some revolutions which humanity accomplishes without quite knowing how, because it is everybody who takes them in hand.
Unless we share with each other we gotta start makin' changes
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