Master the Creative Process | Twyla Tharp

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Life Sciences, Science, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2025

⏱️ 150 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Twyla Tharp is a world-renowned dancer, choreographer and expert on the creative process. She explains how to achieve creative success by keeping a highly disciplined routine that ultimately allows you to bring your creative visions to life. She explains how to establish a central message for each project, how to think about your audience, navigate criticism and continually elevate your standards with daily actions. We discuss how one's view of hard work, competition and even your name can shape what you think you're capable of and ultimately achieve. This episode offers direct, practical advice from a world-class creator on how to access your inner vision, build a strong body and mind, and do your best work. Show notes: https://go.hubermanlab.com/Yx57rWq Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Our Place: https://fromourplace.com/huberman Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Mateina: https://drinkmateina.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Twyla Tharp (00:03:28) Focus & Creative Work, Tool: "Spine" of Creative Work (00:06:22) Creator & Audience Dynamic; Intention, Finances (00:11:57) Early vs Late Works, Learning & Selectivity throughout Career (00:15:59) Sponsors: Our Place & Eight Sleep (00:19:09) "Cubby-Holing", Career Change & Reputation (00:21:48) Creator Community & Selectivity; Success & Useful Failure (00:27:42) Work Process, Schedule; Selecting Dancers, Supporting the Arts, Expectations (00:32:36) Successful Performance; Beauty, Arts Compensation (00:36:22) Mikhail Baryshnikov, Ballet & Invention; Philip Glass, Minimalism (00:43:18) Knowledge vs Instinct, Taste; Avant Garde; Classical Training (00:47:05) Kirov Ballet, Kids, Uniformity; Body Types (00:52:13) Sponsor: AG1 (00:53:36) Movement, Body Frequency, Power (01:00:18) Creative Process, Spine; Idea, Habit (01:04:15) Rituals, Gym, Discipline; Farming, Quaker & Community; Communication (01:12:16) Communication, Signaling & Distance; Feeling Emotion (01:18:11) Boxing, Strength Training (01:21:41) Sponsors: LMNT (01:23:01) Ballet Barre Work, Fundamentals (01:29:09) Body's Knowledge, Honoring the Body, Kids & Movement (01:35:42) High Standards & Childhood; Wordlessness & Movement, Twins (01:41:31) Translator, Objectivity; Critics, Creator Honesty (01:46:50) Sponsor: Mateina (01:47:50) Evolution & Learning; Amadeus Film & Research (01:53:53) Medicine, Keto Diet; Ballet Training & Performance, Desire (02:00:50) Young Dancers & Competition, Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Reward, Hard Work (02:08:47) Tool: "The Box"; Ritual, Practice vs Habit; Honorary Degrees (02:13:37) Tool: Idea "Scratching"; Movement & Longevity, Apprentice (02:19:46) Aging & Less Movement, Fearlessness; Taking Up Space, Names (02:25:42) Acknowledgements (02:27:18) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Sponsors, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You have a reputation for having risen early and gotten to the gym by 5 a.m. for two hours, day in after day out.
0:09.4	Tell us about that ritual and do you still enjoy it?
0:12.0	It's not a ritual and I never enjoyed it. It's a reality.
0:15.6	And you do it because you need an instrument that you can challenge. Just set the mechanism for the day
0:24.4	you're going to have to do it. It's kind of boring and it's kind of loathsome. Could you give us a bit
0:30.6	of insight into your inner dialogue around days when you don't want to go? Is there a self-talk? Or have you
0:36.6	learned to push aside the voice that says maybe not today?
0:40.2	It's simple.
0:41.2	If you don't work when you don't want to work,
0:44.9	you're not going to be able to work when you do want to work.
0:48.9	Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast,
0:50.9	where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
0:57.9	I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of
1:03.6	Medicine. My guest today is Twyla Tharp. Twyla Tharp is a world-renowned dancer and
1:09.0	choreographer. Her on-stage in film works easily place her not just in the top 1% of all choreographers of all time,
1:16.0	but also among the top tier of all creative artists past and present.
1:20.1	I knew I wanted to host Twyla on this podcast after listening to her book, The Creative Habit,
1:25.5	where she spells out how to build a schedule, habits, and routines
1:28.7	that make your best creative expressions come to life.
1:32.1	What I love about it is it's direct and it's action-oriented.
1:35.4	There's nothing mystical about it.
1:37.3	She explains in her book how even for people that have just one hour a day to write
	...

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