Choreographers Quotes

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  Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.

  Martha Graham

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "The Runner's Book of Daily Inspiration: A Year of Motivation, Revelation, and Instruction". Book by Kevin Nelson, p. 11, 1999.

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• The body says what words cannot.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Photography, Get Well

  "Martha Graham Reflects on Her Art and a Life in Dance". archive.nytimes.com. March 31, 1985.

  114 Copy quote

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• There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.

  Martha Graham

  Positive, Uplifting, Dance

  "The Life and Work of Martha Graham". Book by Agnes de Mille, p. 264, 1991.

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• Making dances is an act of progress; it is an act of growth, an act of music, an act of teaching, an act of celebration, an act of joy.

  Alvin Ailey

  Music, Dance, Teaching

  54 Copy quote

• Ultimately there is no such thing as failure. There are lessons learned in different ways.

  Twyla Tharp

  Giving Up, Life Lesson, Failure

  "A Conversation With Choreographer Twyla Tharp". Interview with David Shenk, www.theatlantic.com. February 26, 2010.

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• The person drawn to dance as profession is notoriously unintellectual. He thinks with his muscles, delights in expression with body, not words; finds analysis painful and boring; and is a creature of physical ebullience.

  Doris Humphrey

  Dance, Stupid, Thinking

  Doris Humphrey (1959). “The art of making dances”

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• The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing.

  Doris Humphrey

  Dance, Art, Believe

  68 Copy quote

• Dance is the hidden langauge of the soul, of the body.

  Martha Graham

  Inspirational, Dance, Art

  "Martha Graham Reflects on Her Art and a Life in Dance". archive.nytimes.com. March 31, 1985.

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• If you dance with your heart, your body will follow.

  Mia Michaels

  Dance, Art, Body

  63 Copy quote

• I dance not to entertain but to help people better understand each other. Because through dance I have experienced the wordless joy of freedom, I seek it more fully now for my people and for all people everywhere.

  Pearl Primus

  Dance, Art, Freedom

  77 Copy quote

• Why do I dance? Dance is my medicine. It’s the scream which eases for a while the terrible frustration common to all human beings who because of race, creed, or color, are ‘invisible’. Dance is the fist with which I fight the sickening ignorance of prejudice.

  Pearl Primus

  Dance, Ignorance, Fighting

  105 Copy quote

• I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what it too deep to find for words.

  Ruth St. Denis

  Inspirational, Dance, Art

  72 Copy quote

• Our arms start from the back because they were once wings.

  Martha Graham

  Inspirational, Dance, Wings

  171 Copy quote

• Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

  Martha Graham

  Inspirational, Dance, Mean

  16 Copy quote

• Strong and convincing art has never arisen from theories.

  Mary Wigman

  Dance, Art, Strong

  Mary Wigman, Virginia Stewart (1935). “Modern dance”

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• No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a strange, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Blessed, Artist

  "The Life and Work of Martha Graham". Book by Agnes de Mille, p. 264, 1991.

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• There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Block, Yoga

  "The Life and Work of Martha Graham". Book by Agnes de Mille, p. 264, 1991.

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• Choreography is simpler than you think. Just go and do, and don't think so much about it. Just make something interesting.

  George Balanchine

  Motivational, Dance, Thinking

  87 Copy quote

• I saw the dance as a vision of ineffable power. A man could, with dignity and a towering majesty, dance. Not mince, cavort, do "fancy dancing" or "showoff" steps. No: Dance as Michelangelo's visions dance and as the music of Bach dances.

  Jose Limon

  Music, Dance, Art

  100 Copy quote

• Solo dancing does not exist: the dancer dances with the floor: add another dancer and you have a quartet: each dance with the other and each with the floor.

  Steve Paxton

  Dance, Dancing, Doe

  272 Copy quote

• A choreographic idea flows only as fast as the initiator can communicate it to bodies and see them realize it.

  Marcia Siegel

  Inspirational, Dance, Ideas

  4 Copy quote

• When I miss class for one day, I know it. When I miss class for two days, my teacher knows it. When I miss class for three days, the audience knows it.

  Rudolf Nureyev

  Dance, Teacher, Class

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• Dance every performance as if it were your last.

  Erik Bruhn

  Dance, Dancing, Lasts

  55 Copy quote

• Animals cannot speak, but can you and I not speak for them and represent them? Let us all feel their silent cry of agony and let us all help that cry to be heard in the world.

  Rukmini Devi Arundale

  Animal, Compassion, Agony

  60 Copy quote

• Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made.

  Ted Shawn

  Inspirational, Dance, Art

  68 Copy quote