“I have no desire to prove anything by it. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance.”
“My dancing days are done.”
“DANCE, v.i. To leap about to the sound of tittering music, preferably with arms about your neighbor's wife or daughter. There are many kinds of dances, but all those requiring the participation of the two sexes have two characteristics in common: they are conspicuously innocent, and warmly loved by the vicious.”
“A thousand hearts beat happily; and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again, And all went merry as a marriage bell.”
“On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.”
“And then he danced;—all foreigners excel The serious Angles in the eloquence Of pantomime;—he danced, I say, right well, With emphasis, and also with good sense— A thing in footing indispensable: He danced without theatrical pretence, Not like a ballet-master in the van Of his drill'd nymphs, but like a gentleman.”
“If people stand in a circle long enough, they'll eventually begin to dance.”
“There comes a pause, for human strength Will not endure to dance without cessation; And everyone must reach the point at length Of absolute prostration.”
“As to dancing, my dear, I never dance, unless I am allowed to do it in my own peculiar way. There is no use trying to describe it: it has to be seen to be believed. [...] Did you ever see the Rhinoceros, and the Hippopotamus, at the Zoological Gardens, trying to dance a minuet together? It is a touching sight.”
“Where dance is, there is the devil.”
“Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit.”
“"The thing about dancers is they're a certain breed. You don't do it to become rich and famous, you don't do it to have a really long career or to be the star, you do it because you can't imagine your life not doing it."”
“When you can tell the story of the song through your movement, it's brilliant. It comes across as so honest and not fake.”
“Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands, With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves, Let me forget about today until tomorrow.”
“A time to mourn, and a time to Dance.”
“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”
“Alike all ages: dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze; And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.”
“We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance.”
“How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat. Some dance to remember, some dance to forget.”
“The bones of this body say, dance. Dance the story of life”
“The most immediate way we experience the universe is through our body. This is why contemporary dance is the most honest expression because body movement, as they say, cannot lie. Even if you are pretending, it shows."”
“Dance, (Indian or otherwise), like sport trains the body, increases its potential for physical intelligence, accuracy, strength, speed, alignment and develops kinaesthetic awareness. There is style in sport just as there is athleticism in dance.”
“Merrily, merrily whirled the wheels of the dizzying dances Under the orchard-trees and down the path to the meadows; Old folk and young together, and children mingled among them.”
“The dance of renewal, the dance that made the world, was always danced here at the edge of things, on the brink, on the foggy coast.”
“Come, knit hands, and beat the ground In a light fantastic round.”
“I've seen her dancing; to hell with romancing.”
“Ich würde nur an einen Gott glauben, der zu tanzen verstünde.”
“Others import yet nobler arts from France, Teach kings to fiddle, and make senates dance.”
“Oh! if to dance all night, and dress all day, Charm'd the small-pox, or chas'd old age away; * * * * * * To patch, nay ogle, might become a saint, Nor could it sure be such a sin to paint.”
“Dance is about saying something. If you ain’t got nothin' to say, get off the dance floor.”
“They have measured many a mile, To tread a measure with you on this grass.”
“He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.”
“For you and I are past our dancing days.”
“When you do dance, I wish you A wave o' th' sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that.”
“I always thought dancing improper; but it can't be since I myself am dancing.”
“It is sweet to dance to violins When Love and Life are fair: To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes Is delicate and rare: But it is not sweet with nimble feet To dance upon the air!”
“O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?”
“This dance of death which sounds so musically Was sure intended for the corpse de ballet.”
“O give me new figures! I can't go on dancing The same that were taught me ten seasons ago; The schoolmaster over the land is advancing, Then why is the master of dancing so slow? It is such a bore to be always caught tripping In dull uniformity year after year; Invent something new, and you'll set me a skipping: I want a new figure to dance with my Dear!”
“Imperial Waltz! imported from the Rhine (Famed for the growth of pedigrees and wine), Long be thine import from all duty free, And hock itself be less esteem'd than thee.”
“Endearing Waltz—to thy more melting tune Bow Irish jig, and ancient rigadoon. Scotch reels, avaunt! and country-dance forego Your future claims to each fantastic toe! Waltz—Waltz alone—both legs and arms demands, Liberal of feet, and lavish of her hands.”
“Hot from the hands promiscuously applied, Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side.”
“What! the girl I adore by another embraced? What! the balm of her breath shall another man taste? What! pressed in the dance by another's man's knee? What! panting recline on another than me? Sir, she's yours; you have pressed from the grape its fine blue, From the rosebud you've shaken the tremulous dew; What you've touched you may take. Pretty waltzer—adieu!”
“To brisk notes in cadence beating Glance their many-twinkling feet.”
“And the dancing has begun now, And the dancers whirl round gaily In the waltz's giddy mazes, And the ground beneath them trembles.”
“Twelve dancers are dancing, and taking no rest, And closely their hands together are press'd; And soon as a dance has come to a close, Another begins, and each merrily goes.”
“He who esteems the Virginia reel A bait to draw saints from their spiritual weal, And regards the quadrille as a far greater knavery Than crushing His African children with slavery, Since all who take part in a waltz or cotillon Are mounted for hell on the devil's own pillion, Who, as every true orthodox Christian well knows, Approaches the heart through the door of the toes.”
“Come and trip it as ye go, On the light fantastic toe.”
“Dancing in the chequer'd shade.”
“Dear creature!—you'd swear When her delicate feet in the dance twinkle round, That her steps are of light, that her home is the air, And she only par complaisance touches the ground.”
“I know the romance, since it's over, 'Twere idle, or worse, to recall;— I know you're a terrible rover; But, Clarence, you'll come to our ball.”
“I saw her at a country ball; There when the sound of flute and fiddle Gave signal sweet in that old hall, Of hands across and down the middle Hers was the subtlest spell by far Of all that sets young hearts romancing: She was our queen, our rose, our star; And when she danced—oh, heaven, her dancing!”
“He, perfect dancer, climbs the rope, And balances your fear and hope.”
“We are dancing on a volcano.”
“Inconsolable to the minuet in Ariadne!”
“While his off-heel, insidiously aside, Provokes the caper which he seems to chide.”
“But O, she dances such a way! No sun upon an Easter-day, Is half so fine a sight.”
“Dance light, for my heart it lies under your feet, love.”
“And beautiful maidens moved down in the dance, With the magic of motion and sunshine of glance: And white arms wreathed lightly, and tresses fell free As the plumage of birds in some tropical tree.”
“Jack shall pipe, and Jill shall dance.”
“One you have danced, you always dance.”
“Dance to the song of life.”
“Of what is the body made! It is made of emptiness and rhythm. At the ultimate heart of the body , at the heart of the world there is no solidity…there is only the dance.”
“The truest expression of people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie.”
“The dance is strong magic. The dance is spirit. It turns the body to liquid steel. It makes it vibrate like a guitar. The body can fly without wings. It can sing without voice. The dance is strong magic.”
“What I fell in love with as a child was 'My Fair Lady,' 'Funny Face,' 'American in Paris,' and 'Singin' in the Rain.' Just perfect movies to me and I was dancing. I started ballet when I was three. And I fell in love with those movies and fell in love with Audrey Hepburn and Leslie Caron.”
“The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener.”
“In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell... we can't dance synonyms.”
“Every ballet, whether or not successful artistically or with the public, has given me something important.”
“Degas was obsessed by the art of classical ballet, because to him it said something about the human condition. He was not a balletomane looking for an alternative world to escape into. Dance offered him a display in which he could find, after much searching, certain human secrets.”
“The ballet embodies the notes of music. And sometimes you almost feel like you can see the notes dance up there on the stage.”
“At the ballet, you really feel like you're in the presence of something outside the rest of your life. Higher than the rest of your life.”
“I don’t understand anything about the ballet; all I know is that during the intervals the ballerinas stink like horses.”
“The discipline that ballet requires is obsessive. And only the ones who dedicate their whole lives are able to make it. Your toenails fall off and you peel them away and then you're asked to dance again and keep smiling. I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer.”
“On Les Syphides. Here is the true masterpiece of the romantic ballet.”
“I didn't care too much for ballet, because you had to be more disciplined, and you sort of looked like everyone else. It required a certain kind of conformity that I didn't feel like I wanted to do.”
“Ballet is an incredibly difficult, beautiful art form that takes a lot of training, a lot of time, and a lot of hard work.”
“My world was a community ballet school, a marching band, my two sisters and my girlfriends. I played saxophone in the band and was a bit nerdy.”
“And it is always Easter Sunday at the New York City Ballet. It is always coming back to life. Not even coming back to life - it lives in the constant present.”
“God comes to us in theater in the way we communicate with each other, whether it be a symphony orchestra, or a wonderful ballet, or a beautiful painting, or a play. It's a way of expressing our humanity.”
“I feel his arm Lightly Over me. He takes one of my outstretched hands. Draws it beneath my stomach. "One more time..." This is not sex, Not friendship. Something Strange Special In the stillness of his breath, The water like way he moves. He is making a dance We are making a dance.”
“Ballet is the fairies' baseball.”
“So many people report to be contemporary dancers, and they're not. They are sort of jazz dancers that feel like they're throwing a bit of classical in there. I mean, a true contemporary dancer has got ballet as their base and classical ballet, and that is their base. And then they choose to extemporize on that and go into a contemporary world.”
“Anytime you look at anything that's considered artistic, there's a commercial world around it: the ballet, opera, any kind of music. It can't exist without it.”
“I saw a lot of cool choreographing opportunities, but I was nervous about it. Swan Lake is the most difficult thing to portray for a female ballet dancer; it really requires such specific qualities of articulation, agility, strength, and the arm work is something that takes a lot of training. I wasn’t necessarily thinking it was going to be a piece of cake.”
“If nobody comes to your shows, then it's modern dance. If everybody comes to your shows and no one likes it, is that ballet? I don't know.”
“Some people think that movements, such as the movements in ballet, are a higher cultural expression, whereas some are just dirt. I think it is elitist to think that a trained movement is more acceptable than untrained and possibly unrehearsed movements.”
“I'm so fair that I didn't go in the sun as a child. When all my friends were on the beach, I was going to ballet. The teachers there didn't like you going in the sun, so I never did.”
“Heaven help the American-born boy with a talent for ballet.”
“I started taking ballet lessons when I was 4, and I was performing in ballet companies when I was 10, and I did summer stock in Miami Beach when I was 12, and finally I said, 'I gotta go to Broadway.'”
“The popularity of adult ballet is, in my mind, a back to basics thing in a time when different dance styles are abundant. To master different styles has one precondition: to master the basics. There is no better way to achieve this than studying ballet.”
“In order to dance professionally, you have to start at a young age. No matter what, your muscle structure and your bones have to be groomed from a very young age. Nobody wakes up at 17 and decides to become a ballet dancer.”
“You can imagine me as a kid growing up in redneck Texas with ballet shoes, tucking the violin under my arm. I had to fight my way up.”
“By disparaging ballet he succeeded very well in convincing the boys that ballet was not for Americans, that it was European in origin and in continuing character.”
“A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I'm beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.”
“The ballet needs to tell its own story in such a way it can be received without having to be translated into language.”
“I started ballet in my early 20s. I studied for about ten years. Ballet is probably the one of the hardest things I've done, almost like MMA. People don't give it a lot of credit and think it's easy, but it's very difficult. For an athlete, you use muscles you really don't use, and ballet is something I really respect.”
“Slashing its way to the finish line, 'Black Swan' is the first ballet movie for highbrow horror fans for whom ballet itself signifies little to nothing. Those of us who know and love ballet can only look on it with a different kind of horror.”
“Choreographers and costume designers in the 21st century now choose costumes which best suit the purpose of their ballet. This means that depending on the ballet, you may see a Romantic tutu, a Classical tutu or no tutu at all.”
“I have no desire to prove anything by it. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance.”
“My dancing days are done.”
“DANCE, v.i. To leap about to the sound of tittering music, preferably with arms about your neighbor's wife or daughter. There are many kinds of dances, but all those requiring the participation of the two sexes have two characteristics in common: they are conspicuously innocent, and warmly loved by the vicious.”
“A thousand hearts beat happily; and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again, And all went merry as a marriage bell.”
“On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.”
“And then he danced;—all foreigners excel The serious Angles in the eloquence Of pantomime;—he danced, I say, right well, With emphasis, and also with good sense— A thing in footing indispensable: He danced without theatrical pretence, Not like a ballet-master in the van Of his drill'd nymphs, but like a gentleman.”
“If people stand in a circle long enough, they'll eventually begin to dance.”
“There comes a pause, for human strength Will not endure to dance without cessation; And everyone must reach the point at length Of absolute prostration.”
“As to dancing, my dear, I never dance, unless I am allowed to do it in my own peculiar way. There is no use trying to describe it: it has to be seen to be believed. [...] Did you ever see the Rhinoceros, and the Hippopotamus, at the Zoological Gardens, trying to dance a minuet together? It is a touching sight.”
“Where dance is, there is the devil.”
“Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit.”
“"The thing about dancers is they're a certain breed. You don't do it to become rich and famous, you don't do it to have a really long career or to be the star, you do it because you can't imagine your life not doing it."”
“When you can tell the story of the song through your movement, it's brilliant. It comes across as so honest and not fake.”
“Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands, With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves, Let me forget about today until tomorrow.”
“A time to mourn, and a time to Dance.”
“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”
“Alike all ages: dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze; And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.”
“We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance.”
“How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat. Some dance to remember, some dance to forget.”
“The bones of this body say, dance. Dance the story of life”
“The most immediate way we experience the universe is through our body. This is why contemporary dance is the most honest expression because body movement, as they say, cannot lie. Even if you are pretending, it shows."”
“Dance, (Indian or otherwise), like sport trains the body, increases its potential for physical intelligence, accuracy, strength, speed, alignment and develops kinaesthetic awareness. There is style in sport just as there is athleticism in dance.”
“Merrily, merrily whirled the wheels of the dizzying dances Under the orchard-trees and down the path to the meadows; Old folk and young together, and children mingled among them.”
“The dance of renewal, the dance that made the world, was always danced here at the edge of things, on the brink, on the foggy coast.”
“Come, knit hands, and beat the ground In a light fantastic round.”
“I've seen her dancing; to hell with romancing.”
“Ich würde nur an einen Gott glauben, der zu tanzen verstünde.”
“Others import yet nobler arts from France, Teach kings to fiddle, and make senates dance.”
“Oh! if to dance all night, and dress all day, Charm'd the small-pox, or chas'd old age away; * * * * * * To patch, nay ogle, might become a saint, Nor could it sure be such a sin to paint.”
“Dance is about saying something. If you ain’t got nothin' to say, get off the dance floor.”
“They have measured many a mile, To tread a measure with you on this grass.”
“He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.”
“For you and I are past our dancing days.”
“When you do dance, I wish you A wave o' th' sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that.”
“I always thought dancing improper; but it can't be since I myself am dancing.”
“It is sweet to dance to violins When Love and Life are fair: To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes Is delicate and rare: But it is not sweet with nimble feet To dance upon the air!”
“O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?”
“This dance of death which sounds so musically Was sure intended for the corpse de ballet.”
“O give me new figures! I can't go on dancing The same that were taught me ten seasons ago; The schoolmaster over the land is advancing, Then why is the master of dancing so slow? It is such a bore to be always caught tripping In dull uniformity year after year; Invent something new, and you'll set me a skipping: I want a new figure to dance with my Dear!”
“Imperial Waltz! imported from the Rhine (Famed for the growth of pedigrees and wine), Long be thine import from all duty free, And hock itself be less esteem'd than thee.”
“Endearing Waltz—to thy more melting tune Bow Irish jig, and ancient rigadoon. Scotch reels, avaunt! and country-dance forego Your future claims to each fantastic toe! Waltz—Waltz alone—both legs and arms demands, Liberal of feet, and lavish of her hands.”
“Hot from the hands promiscuously applied, Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side.”
“What! the girl I adore by another embraced? What! the balm of her breath shall another man taste? What! pressed in the dance by another's man's knee? What! panting recline on another than me? Sir, she's yours; you have pressed from the grape its fine blue, From the rosebud you've shaken the tremulous dew; What you've touched you may take. Pretty waltzer—adieu!”
“To brisk notes in cadence beating Glance their many-twinkling feet.”
“And the dancing has begun now, And the dancers whirl round gaily In the waltz's giddy mazes, And the ground beneath them trembles.”
“Twelve dancers are dancing, and taking no rest, And closely their hands together are press'd; And soon as a dance has come to a close, Another begins, and each merrily goes.”
“He who esteems the Virginia reel A bait to draw saints from their spiritual weal, And regards the quadrille as a far greater knavery Than crushing His African children with slavery, Since all who take part in a waltz or cotillon Are mounted for hell on the devil's own pillion, Who, as every true orthodox Christian well knows, Approaches the heart through the door of the toes.”
“Come and trip it as ye go, On the light fantastic toe.”
“Dancing in the chequer'd shade.”
“Dear creature!—you'd swear When her delicate feet in the dance twinkle round, That her steps are of light, that her home is the air, And she only par complaisance touches the ground.”
“I know the romance, since it's over, 'Twere idle, or worse, to recall;— I know you're a terrible rover; But, Clarence, you'll come to our ball.”
“I saw her at a country ball; There when the sound of flute and fiddle Gave signal sweet in that old hall, Of hands across and down the middle Hers was the subtlest spell by far Of all that sets young hearts romancing: She was our queen, our rose, our star; And when she danced—oh, heaven, her dancing!”
“He, perfect dancer, climbs the rope, And balances your fear and hope.”
“We are dancing on a volcano.”
“Inconsolable to the minuet in Ariadne!”
“While his off-heel, insidiously aside, Provokes the caper which he seems to chide.”
“But O, she dances such a way! No sun upon an Easter-day, Is half so fine a sight.”
“Dance light, for my heart it lies under your feet, love.”
“And beautiful maidens moved down in the dance, With the magic of motion and sunshine of glance: And white arms wreathed lightly, and tresses fell free As the plumage of birds in some tropical tree.”
“Jack shall pipe, and Jill shall dance.”
“One you have danced, you always dance.”
“Dance to the song of life.”
“Of what is the body made! It is made of emptiness and rhythm. At the ultimate heart of the body , at the heart of the world there is no solidity…there is only the dance.”
“The truest expression of people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie.”
“The dance is strong magic. The dance is spirit. It turns the body to liquid steel. It makes it vibrate like a guitar. The body can fly without wings. It can sing without voice. The dance is strong magic.”
Quotations from Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0.