I have no idea what the costumes will look like, or the lighting, or who will be performing the music. I don't know which dancers I'll be working with. The other half of the program is a mystery.

I have half of the program in hand - a fifty-minute ballet for all six dancers set to Beethoven's twenty-ninth piano sonata, the 'Hammerklavier.' I created the piece more than a year ago on many of these same dancers, and I've spent the past few weeks rehearsing it with the company. In five weeks I'm flying to Los Angeles with a troupe of six dancers to perform a dance program for eight consecutive evenings in front of twelve hundred people every night. Other than the mirrors, the boom box, the skid marks, and me, the room is empty. The floor is clean, virtually spotless if you don't count the thousands of skid marks and footprints left there by dancers rehearsing. The room is lined with eight-foot-high mirrors. I'm wearing a sweatshirt, faded jeans, and Nike cross-trainers. It's a dance studio in midtown Manhattan. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. The wide-open realm of possibilities can be energizing, and Twyla Tharp explains how to take a deep breath and begin. 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.

In 'Build a Bridge to the Next Day,' she shows you how to clean the clutter from your mind overnight. In 'Do a Verb,' she turns your mind and body into coworkers. In 'Coins and Chaos,' she gives you an easy way to restore order and peace. In 'Where's Your Pencil?' Tharp reminds you to observe the world-and get it down on paper. Whether you are a painter, musician, businessperson, or simply an individual yearning to put your creativity to use, The Creative Habit provides you with 32 practical exercises based on the lessons Twyla Tharp has learned in her remarkable 35-year career. It is the product of preparation and effort, and is within reach of everyone. All it takes to make creativity a part of your life is the willingness to make it a habit.

The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp