Dance Quotes

"Dance isn't a form it's a way of life."
"Dancers are the athletes of God." ~Albert Einstein
"We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" ~Albert Einstein
"To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking." ~Agnes De Mille
"If dancing were any easier it would be called football."
"Try to be fearless, because fear can inhibit you and keep you from a life." ~Miranda Weese "If ballet was easy then everyone would be doing it."
"Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another."
"The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing... there are times when the simple dignity of movement can fulfill the function of a volume of words. There are movements which impinge upon the nerves with a strength that is incomparable, for movement has power to stir the senses and emotions, unique in itself. This is the dancer's justification for being, and his reason for searching further for deeper aspects of his art." ~Doris Humphrey
"Behind each victory is a long train of suffering!"
"I don't have an attitude, I'm just REALLY good!" ~Dance Caravan
"The people who do not dance are the dead." ~Jerry Rose of Dance Caravan
"You know you're dancing when tears of pain and happiness blend in with your sweat"
"Artists lead unglamorous daily lives of discipline and routine, but their work is full of passion. Each has a vision and feels responsibility to that vision." ~Merryl Brockway
"Dancers are an admirable bunch of people. The way they work. The stress is extraordinary. It's a difficult career. I think it's hellish; the fact that they are over the hill as they're emotionally maturing. That calls for a terrific strength of character." ~Lady D. MacMillan
Ballet is not technique but a way of expression that comes more closely to the inner language of man than any other." ~George Borodin
It's what I always wanted to do, to show the laughter, the fun the joy of dance." ~Martha Graham
"Life is a dance, from one stage to the next."
"Set yourself up for success and anything is possible."
"It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer."
"Dancers aren't made of their technique, but their passion."
"Your love for yourself is only shown when you are dancing freely."
"Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays." ~George Balanchine
"When AIDS is stopped we will dance for joy. Until then we will dance for life."
"Dancers are among the most passionate and dedicated of artists and rarely take their work for granted."
"You can't see a painter or a writer or a musician if you just look at them, but you can see a dancer in a child if they've studied ballet for a year." ~"The Dancer and the Dance" movie "You can't make a pointe if you don't understand the details."
The teacher doesn't teach, not really. The teacher offers stimulation and ways in which the person can educate himself or herself. At best the teacher wakes up that person and makes a person hungry.
Dancers work and live from the inside. They drive themselves constantly producing a glow that lights not only themselves but audience after audience." ~M. Louis
"When in doubt......dance!"
"Why do I dance?.....Why do I breathe?"
"A child sings before it speaks, dances almost before it walks. Music is in our hearts from the beginning." ~Pamela Brown
"Tomorrow's success begins today."
"Then come the lights shining on you from above. You are a performer. You forget all you learned, the process of technique, the fear, the pain, you even forget who you are you become one with the music, the lights, indeed one with the dance." ~Shirley Maclaine
"You can dance anywhere, even if only in your heart."
"I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what it too deep to find for words." ~Ruth St. Denis
"Dance for yourself, if someone understands good. If not then no matter, go right on doing what you love." ~Lois Hurst
"Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It's the rhythm of your life. It's the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy." ~Jaques D'ambroise
“All there is to be said for work compared to dance is that the latter is so much easier." ~Heywood Brown
"Dance for life."
“Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance”. ~Dave Barry
“Dancing is like dreaming with your feet!” ~Constanze
“Dancing is wonderful training for girls, it's the first way you learn to guess what a man is going to do before he does it”. ~Christopher Morley, Kitty Foyle
“You can dance anywhere, even if only in your heart”.
“Dancing is the perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire”.
“Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?” ~Friedrich Nietzsche
“Great dancers are not great because of their technique; they are great because of their passion” ~Martha Graham.
“I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to to dance better than myself.” ~Mikhail Baryshnikov
“The dance is a poem of which movement is a word”. ~Mata Hari.
“Dance is a delicate balance between perfection and beauty”.
“Dancers today can do anything; the technique is phenomenal. The passion and the meaning to their movement can be another thing”. ~Martha Graham.
“Ballet technique is arbitrary and very difficult. It never becomes easy--it becomes possible. The effort involved in making a dancer's body is so long and relentless, in many instances painful, the effort to maintain the technique so grueling that unless a certain satisfaction is derived from the disciplining and the punishing, the pace could not be maintained”. ~Agnes de Mille
“There are three steps you have to complete to become a professional dancer: learn to dance, learn to perform, and learn how to cope with injuries”. ~D. Gere
“Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to paradise of the achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration, there are daily small deaths”. ~Martha Graham.
“One is born to be a dancer. No teacher can work miracles, nor will years of training make a good dancer of an untalented pupil. One may be able to acquire a certain technical facility, but no one can ever 'acquire an exceptional talent.' I have never prided myself on having an unusually gifted pupil. A Pavlova is no one's pupil but God's”. ~George Balanchine
“Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery”. ~Martha Graham.
“Beginning dancer: Knows nothing. Intermediate dancer: Knows everything. Too good to dance with beginners. Hotshot dancer: Too good to dance with anyone. Advanced dancer: Dances everything. Especially with beginners”.
“Dance first. Think later. It’s the natural order”. ~Samuel Beckett
“Why do I dance?....Why do I breathe?
“Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain”. ~Martha Graham.
“The heart of the dance is the heart of the dancer”.
“When I miss class for one day, I know it. When I miss class fot two days, my teacher knows it, Whe I miss class for three days, the audience knows it”. ~Rudolf Nureyev.
“Ballet discipline: only the true believer would suffer the rigors it demanded”.
"The dance is simply the luminous manifestation of the dancer's soul, natural but not initiative speaking in movement out of himself, that which is greater than all parts of self."
"Then come the lights shining on you from above. You are a performer. You forget all you learned, the process of technique, the fear, the pain, you even forget who you are you become one with the music, the light, indeed one with the dance." ~Shirley Maclaine
“All the one that loves the ballet has strangers and wonderful dreams”. ~Jane Herman.
“It takes ten years, usually, to make a dancer. It takes ten years of handling the instrument, handling the material with which you are dealing, for you to know it completely”. ~Martha Graham.
“I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what it too deep to find for words”. ~Ruth St. Denis
“I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal”. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche