The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
by Twyla Tharp
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Book Summary Information
Author: Twyla TharpContributor: Mark Reiter
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-12-27
ISBN: 0743235274
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Book Reviews of The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
Book Review: Confessions of a Chauffeur
Summary: 5 Stars
Today I tell insider stories leading to Twyla's book on creativity. My son will not speak to me. He feels I am not bright enough. I say he takes after his mother who is much brighter than I am. Let me tell you an inside story of an early work of Twyla Tharp. I once served as Twyla's chauffeur. {We theater people always use first names.} Never leave well enough alone unless it suits your purpose.
Twyla has an enduring wit to make ordinary things seem extraordinary. An educator near to me was perceptive enough early on to bring in Twyla to campus as a promising young choreographer of the day.
What was Twyla's dance we saw that summer day in the pasture? An indistinct line of maybe twenty women dancers moved toward us from far across the field. They all wore shirts and blue jeans as they loped along, seeming not to dance. As they drew closer, it appeared their jeans had crotches all torn out to reveal bare skin of Shangri La. My focus became sharper as these dancers drew ever closer in an extraordinary revelation. Art is Truth! What seemed ridiculous became sublime! Those seemingly revealing dancers all had white patches sewn to their jeans to block total frontal nudity of private parts. Privacy had not failed! Their onward march ended near us. In my naïve manner, worthy of Candide, I asked when the dance would begin. Suddenly I became invisible as if absent.
Later that day I hoped to redeem myself by serving as chauffeur to carry a few of Twyla's company back to their rooms in my large Oldsmobile. Before our departure, we together with Twyla and her company enjoyed a few moments of quiet conversation before the hearth in our large living room. Knowing Twyla had a young son, I ventured to offer her a turn of wit from Descartes as a precept for raising children: "Good sense must be of all things equally distributed because no one desires more than he already has." Children are also rational beings. Twyla listened carefully but maintained a stony silence. Long I have been puzzled whether Twyla saw any merit in that precept.
After our chat I loaded my car as chauffeur of her dancers, leaving Twyla to pursue her other plans. We had a quiet ride.
Recently I found Twyla's use of her good sense in her book on creativity as a habit. Twyla says on page 9: "There's a paradox in the notion that creativity should be a habit. We think of creativity as a way of keeping everything fresh and new, while habit implies routine and repetition. That paradox intrigues me because it occupies the place where and creativity and skill rub against each other." Here I extrapolate Twyla's philosophical rejoinder to Descartes - To use good sense, we all must learn to make sense of our world, whatever our world be. My mind is eased of puzzlement. Twyla confronts her challenging identity in her white room of rehearsal where she makes sense of select materials from a box that enables her to think outside the box.
Redemption is near! With this lesson taken from Twyla, I should be brash as Achilles and become a hero like Picasso or Jackson Pollock. And yet, my heel is pierced by an old proverb that is easily extended: No man is a hero to his valet or his chauffeur. Time wounds all heels. Perhaps a chauffeur can only go with T.S. Eliot to sing The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Finding a brighter rhythm, I can with enough skill drive a Ferrari Formula One in the 24 hours of Le Mans. Choose heroes carefully. The identity you save may be your own.
Summary of The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
All it takes to make creativity a part of your life is the willingness to make it a habit. It is the product of preparation and effort, and is within reach of everyone. Whether you are a painter, musician, businessperson, or simply an individual yearning to put your creativity to use, The Creative Habit provides you with thirty-two practical exercises based on the lessons Twyla Tharp has learned in her remarkable thirty-five-year career.In "Where's Your Pencil?" Tharp reminds you to observe the world -- and get it down on paper. In "Coins and Chaos," she gives you an easy way to restore order and peace. In "Do a Verb," she turns your mind and body into coworkers. In "Build a Bridge to the Next Day," she shows you how to clean the clutter from your mind overnight.
Tharp leads you through the painful first steps of scratching for ideas, finding the spine of your work, and getting out of ruts and into productive grooves. The wide-open realm of possibilities can be energizing, and Twyla Tharp explains how to take a deep breath and begin...
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