For more than five decades, Twyla Tharp has been a phenomenon in American dance, a choreographer who not only broke the rules but refused to repeat her own successes. Tharp has made movies, television specials, and nearly one hundred riveting dance works. Her dance show Movin' Out ran on Broadway for three years and won Tharp a Tony award for Best Choreography.

Howling Near Heaven is the only in-depth study of Twyla Tharp's unique, restless creativity. This second edition features a new forward that brings the account of Tharp's work up to date and discusses how dance and dance-making in the United States have changed in recent years. This is the story of a choreographer who refused to be pigeonholed and the dancers who accompanied her as she sped across the frontiers of dance.