Male dancers were a rare breed #twylatharp #dancequote #dance

Wayne McGregor | Random dance’s ATOMOS and quote by Twyla Tharp, (c) Carole Edrich 2015

Born in 1941 Twyla Tharp founded her own company when she was 23. She worked as Baryshnikov’s artistic associate at the American Ballet Theatre and after a while took a break. She returned to dance in 1991 and published her autobiography the following year. This quote comes from her book; “In those days, male dancers were a rarer breed than women, as they are still today. A good male dancer, one as strong as we were, was very difficult to come by if you couldn’t afford to pay them.”

Wayne McGregor is a multi-award-winning British choreographer and director, famous for demanding choreographies and collaborations in the arts and sciences. I reviewed his work ‘Thinking with the body’ here.