BWW Exclusive: Twyla Tharp's NYT Blog- Making Dance: Fifty Years and Counting

Dance legend Twyla Tharp is busy rehearsing a new project, which marks 50 years since her first concert. While in the midst of bringing the new piece to life, she is blogging for NYTimes.com, sharing everything there is to know about her fall season. Check out a portion of her blog below and CLICK HERE to read her full piece:

On Monday in Midtown Manhattan, the pavement is scorching as I make my way to rehearsal. Fifty years ago, going into Room 1604 at Hunter College to give my first dance concert, the weather was about the same. A total of 10 people showed up for that event, a five-minute evening - long enough, I figured, for what I knew about a beginning, middle and end.

Today we begin the final four weeks of rehearsals before leaving on the 50th anniversary tour. The program will be a full evening of two new works for 12 dancers: "Preludes and Fugues," to the music of Bach, and "Yowzie," to American jazz classics. This will tour 10 weeks and close at the Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in late November. One reason I do not sleep well is that before then, we will need to sell more than 10 tickets.

It's 9:30 when I arrive; class is at 10. I have done my morning exercises, eaten my three egg whites and grapefruit, showered, put on the lip gloss and earrings. As I will not be dancing myself in the studio today, I wonder why I am so early - perhaps only to be sure the building is still there. But this is a very important day and has some of the excitement of a first day of school, as all the dancers working on the tour will be together for the first time.

This day has been in the planning for two years and we want it to run with no surprises, please. Like an athlete in training, you want to be ready, but not overtrain, leaving your race at the gate. The cosmetics are about showing control - at least to myself.

The studio on West 38th Street, where we have been rehearsing for the last year and a half, is approximately 20 feet deep and 60 feet wide. Tons of wing space, but with 18 feet of depth, only half a stage.

The studio on West 37th Street, where we'll rehearse for the next four weeks, is a 40-foot square, about the dimensions of the tour stages but with no wing space. Here we will be exiting directly into the walls. Every studio has its own personality, as does every stage. No two are the same, and this is one of the challenges of being on the road.

I am surprised by the distorted images that show up in panoramas, like the ones above, as a result of my moving the camera, moving myself, and moving the subject. Residue of movement, time and space are left behind as the camera travels constantly forward with the action.

CLICK HERE to read her full piece.

Photo Credit: Gene Feldman.