Push Comes to Shove: An Autobiography (1992)

Why do women flourish in the field of modern dance? ''Because there's no profit to be made in holding them down,'' our leading choreographer explains with typical aphoristic brio in Push Comes to Shove: An Autobiography. Twyla Tharp's own progress from downtown bohemian to well-financed American institution took tremendous courage, clarity, and humor, qualities her book displays in abundance. She's frank about abortions, divorce, and failed romances (with just a few lapses into the language of her longtime shrink). She's funny about the childhood sources — drive-in movies, baton twirling, tap-dance lessons — of her eclectic postmodern aesthetic. Her chapter on teenage sex in the bridled '50s is a masterpiece of the deadpan delivery for which she's justly famous. A