Latest Gene Kelly Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• When I would create a dance, I wouldn't have the luxury that ballet people do when they take a piece of music and impose a dance upon it. What we did in motion pictures was have a song and within that song try to elaborate. My usual method was to do what a writer does: get a plot.

  Gene Kelly

  Song, Luxury, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Mentally, I write myself a little story. Of course, sometimes you have a song that says, "Do that." My best example is Singin' in the Rain. Arthur Freed had insisted that the song should be in the picture, but he was very anxious about it.

  Gene Kelly

  Song, Rain, Writing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I think Twyla [Tharp] has a lot to say. The great thing about Twyla is that she continues to explore.

  Gene Kelly

  Thinking, Great Things

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I love rhythmic dancing - I'm not derogating it at all. It's just that sometimes you want to whisper, "I adore you." And for that you need strings and woodwinds.

  Gene Kelly

  Dancing, Needs, Want

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I saw Mikhail Baryshnikov do Twyla Tharp's Sinatra Suite on PBS. I have no numbers to prove it, but I bet that kids who saw that loved it. I think you will see younger dancers, who certainly have the artistic sense and capabilities, start going back to romantic numbers.

  Gene Kelly

  Kids, Thinking, Numbers

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I miss the romance. I keep saying this over and over again, but dance follows music. And if the accent today is percussion and rhythm and loudness, then that is the way the dance numbers will be. But it is pretty hard on romance with seven guitars, three drums, and no melody instruments in the band.

  Gene Kelly

  Guitar, Numbers, Romance

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• For a ridiculous analogy, let's take Purple Rain. If you were to put Purple Rain and The Sound of Music on the desk of a producer, he or she would know that the majority of moviegoers would rather listen to Prince. Since they are in the business of making money, no one can blame them. But if it ever came to the decision of making a film like that I'd say, "No." They are very easy films to make, though. In Purple Rain there is nothing complex about the way that they dance. Or sing. It would be a bit boring for an adult to make that film. It just wouldn't test their métier.

  Gene Kelly

  Rain, Purple, Decision

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• There is a certain amount of pornography that exists throughout Purple Rain, but the appeal is obvious. You can really pick that picture apart and see where "A" fits into "B" and so on. It was very wisely done.

  Gene Kelly

  Rain, Purple, Done

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• America now has more and better dancers than they have ever had in the history of the country, but that won't account for the public wants to see.

  Gene Kelly

  Country, America, Dancer

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• When they do let them sustain on screen from head to toe, though, then you know they must think the person is a good dancer.

  Gene Kelly

  Thinking, Dancer, Toes

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• The future of dance will always be tied up with the public's acceptance of the star. If they accept the star, then they'll accept the dance.

  Gene Kelly

  Stars, Acceptance, Accepting

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I don't understand the whole concept of doubles. They used to do that in the early sound films in Hollywood, but I thought we had gotten rid of that. Now not only do you have doubles, but as in Flashdance, you have triples, quadruples. From my point of view it is bad for the art.

  Gene Kelly

  Art, Views, Sound

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• In film, a dancer should always be shot from head to toe, because that way you can see the whole body and that is the art of dancing. Nowadays they shoot the nose. Left nostril. Right nostril. Hand. Foot. Bust. Derrière. The film prevents you from determining who is a good dancer and who is not.

  Gene Kelly

  Art, Hands, Feet

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I don't even want to discuss Flashdance. I'm no critic, but that's an interesting phenomenon, that picture.

  Gene Kelly

  Interesting, Want, Critics

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• First of all, break-dancing has been done for years, though not all of it put together the way it is now. But, actually, the distinctions have been blurring since the 1950s.

  Gene Kelly

  Years, Dancing, Together

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I never played a rich man, I never played a prince. And to play a sailor or longshoreman you had to make your dance more eclectic and varied, but still keep it indigenous to your nationality, upbringing, and background.

  Gene Kelly

  Men, Play, Sailor

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• In the 1930s there was this tendency in Hollywood to portray everyone as rich. Even if they were doing a poor man's dance, they were all so nicely clothed, gowned, coiffured. That's why I decided to wear white socks, loafers, T-shirts, and blue jeans. I had a sociopolitical context in front of me: I was a child of the Depression who danced in a way that would represent the common man.

  Gene Kelly

  Children, Men, Blue

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• At the time the quickest way to establish yourself as an American was to throw a little bit of tap into your dance - even when it wasn't called for. But what also helped me was the fact that I was dancing in roles that I had played.

  Gene Kelly

  Dancing, Roles, Littles

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• It fit into my scheme of things for many reasons. At the time it was true that male dancers were looked down upon, and it was true that a lot of the male dancers were effeminate. But what I was really trying to do was develop something that would be American.

  Gene Kelly

  Dancer, Trying, Males

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• If I played a tough kid on the street I couldn't go out there and get into fifth position. I had to dance like a tough kid on the street.

  Gene Kelly

  Kids, Tough, Fifth

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Like an athlete, [dance] is an everyday job. You have to stay in shape - unless you just want to loaf through a couple of hoofing routines. But that just didn't satisfy me.

  Gene Kelly

  Jobs, Couple, Athlete

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• In fact, I wasn't going to dance in Xanadu, but several journalists told me that Olivia Newton-John kept saying how sad she was that she wouldn't get the chance to dance with me. So I finally said, "All right, throw in a number." But I'm through with dancing.

  Gene Kelly

  Numbers, Dancing, Olivia

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I had been asked to open a nightclub in Atlantic City. They offered me a ridiculous amount of money. They literally overpaid me. So I did one show a night. Then they asked me back by popular demand. So I went back. Then I said, "To hell with this." I was only doing it for the money, and I was doing easy routines. It's just too much work to get up every day and practice.

  Gene Kelly

  Night, Practice, Cities

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• The only time I feel pressured is when some woman's husband comes over and says, "Will you go ask my wife to dance? She's a great dancer and would just love to dance with you."Suddenly there's a crowd of people standing around us and they expect that they're about to see Fred and Ginger. Here the woman and I have just met, and these people think that it's showtime. That is the only time I think it is really embarrassing.

  Gene Kelly

  Husband, Thinking, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• The only thing is that ordinarily when I do dance with [women] they think I am suddenly going to throw them over a table or twist them all around. All I want to do is one-two, one-two-three - a simple fox trot. But they're shaking with anticipation at the thought that I'm about to whip them around and then toss them on the roof.

  Gene Kelly

  Simple, Thinking, Two

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com