Date: November 9, 2009
Contact: Carol Connelly, Director,
Media & Communication Services, ext. 5267, cconnelly@pnc.edu
Twyla Tharp Concludes 56th Sinai Forum Season
A photo can be found at: http://www.pnc.edu/cd/news/newsphotos/forum2009.html
The 56 th season of the Sinai Forum Presented by Purdue University North Central will conclude its season on Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. at Elston Middle School in Michigan City with an appearance by legendary choreographer, Tony Award winner and best selling author Twyla Tharp. A book signing will follow the program.
Tharp will discuss “Creativity and Risk Taking.” By using lessons learned in the performing arts, she will present a practical approach to achievement, including turning ideas into products and notions into realities. Her animated, movement-filled presentation has delighted audiences across the country.
Tharp was born in Portland , Ind. , but her parents moved to California when she was a child. She started dance class at age four. Her mother believed that she should be adept at as many fields as possible and she soon enrolled in baton, drum, violin, viola, painting, French and German classes.
As a college student in the 1960s, she found her passion in ballet and studied on her own at the American Ballet Theater. Within two years of earning her degree in art history from Barnard College , she started the Twyla Tharp Dance company. The choreography was dynamic and unpredictable and the group was invited to participate in major dance festivals and events.
Today her name is synonymous with modern dance: she's choreographed more than 135 dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed three Broadway shows and received a Tony Award and two Emmy Awards.
In 2003 Tharp published the book, “ The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life ,” in which she shared life lessons from her own career and those of artists throughout the ages. The following year, her lifetime contribution to this country's culture was recognized with the National Medal of Arts, presented by President George W. Bush.
A $25.00 donation to the Forum is requested at the door for admission to the program. Any student with a valid ID will be admitted free. Additional information about the Sinai Forum Presented by Purdue University North Central is available at www.sinaiforum.org .
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