Twyla Tharp

Saturday 19 July, 12 noon
Ca’ Giustinian, Venice

La Biennale di Venezia will present the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to the choreographer Twyla Tharp.

Raised at the school of the American Ballet Theatre and then in the studios of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, and training for a short time with Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp founded her own company in 1965. Since then, with her dance, Twyla Tharp has liberated bodies and minds from conventions and stereotypes, moving with experimental audacity through all the genres – from tap to jazz dance, from post-modern to neoclassical – and reinventing her original style at each step with remarkable combinatorial skill.
There is no form of performance that Twyla Tharp has not turned her attention to, leaving her own distinctive artistic mark: from the temples of dance, becoming part of the repertory of the major international companies (among the many: Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Martha Graham Dance Company), to the world of cinema (one in particular: Hair by Milos Forman) and musicals (for example reinventing the most classic of the classics, Singin’ in the Rain), as well as video, pop and rock (with Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, David Byrne), and finally fashion and television, collecting awards and success (a Tony Award and two Emmy Awards, among others), beloved by the public, critics and artists such as Baryshnikov.

As Wayne McGregor writes in his motivation for the award: “Twyla Tharp is nothing short of a phenomenon. Her revolutionary contributions to the global dance ecology are unrivalled by her work that combines rigour and play, classical discipline, and ballet technique with modern dance and natural movements, as well as radically innovative choreography for stage and film. Twyla Tharp is one of the most important choreographers alive”.

Twyla Tharp will inaugurate Biennale Danza on July 17th at the Teatro Malibran (with a repeat performance on July 18th) with the European premiere of a diptych that celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of her company (Diamond Jubilee Tour), and which departed on a long tour of the United States on January 26th, starting from Minneapolis. Twyla Tharp Dance will perform Diabelli, the celebrated choreography created in 1998 to the 33 variations by Beethoven, and Slacktide, the new creation on Aguas da Amazonia by Philip Glass, a composer with whom Tharp has had a long-standing collaboration. In Venice, Twyla Tharp will also be a mentor for the 16 dancers and 2 choreographers selected for the 2025 edition of Biennale College.

Twyla Tharp (Portland – Indiana, USA, 1941) is an American choreographer. Since graduating from Barnard College in 1963, Twyla Tharp has choreographed more than 160 works: 129 dances, 12 television specials, 6 Hollywood movies, 4 full-length ballets, 4 Broadway shows and 2 figure skating routines.  She received one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, nineteen honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President's Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the 2008 Jerome Robbins Prize, and a 2008 Kennedy Center Honor.  Her many grants include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship.  She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 1965, Ms. Tharp founded her dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance.  Her dances are known for creativity, wit and technical precision coupled with a streetwise nonchalance.  By combining different forms of movement – such as jazz, ballet, boxing and inventions of her own making – Twyla Tharp’s work expands the boundaries of ballet and modern dance.
In addition to choreographing for her own company, she has created dances for The Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The Martha Graham Dance Company, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Today, ballet and dance companies around the world continue to perform Twyla Tharp’s works.
Twyla Tharp's work first appeared on Broadway in 1980 with When We Were Wery Young, followed by her collaboration with musician David Byrne on The Catherine Wheel and later by Singin’ in the Rain.  In 2002, she created the dance musical Movin’ Out, set to the music and lyrics of Billy Joel.  She Tharp later worked with Bob Dylan’s music and lyrics in The Times They Are A-Changin’ and Come Fly Away, set to songs sung by Frank Sinatra.
In film, Twyla Tharp has collaborated with director Milos Forman on Hair, Ragtime and Amadeus.  She has also worked with Taylor Hackford on White Nights and James Brooks on I’ll Do Anything.
Her television credits include choreographing Sue’s Leg for the inaugural episode of PBS' Dance in America in 1976, co-producing and directing Making Television Dance, and directing The Catherine Wheel for BBC Television. Twyla Tharp co-directed the television special Baryshnikov by Tharp.
In 1992, she published her autobiography Push Comes to Shove. She went on to write The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life, followed by The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together. In 2019, her fourth book was published, Keep it Moving: Lessons for the Rest of Your Life.
Today, Twyla Tharp continues to create on stages around the world.