Unreasonable Joy

Quotes By and About Famous Dancers / Choreographers

“Dancers are the messengers of the gods.”  ~Martha Graham

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“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.”  ~Martha Graham

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“Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion. ” ~Martha Graham

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“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

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“I don’t want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance.”  ~George Balanchine

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“I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to to dance better than myself.”  ~Mikhail Baryshnikov

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“The problem is not making up the steps but deciding which ones to keep.”  ~Mikhail Baryshnikov

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“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”  ~Twyla Tharp

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“If you look at a dancer in silence, his or her body will be the music. If you turn the music on, that body will become an extension of what you’re hearing.” ~Judith Jamison, Dancing Spirit: An Autobiography

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“You don’t enter a dance studio and say “I can’t do that.” If you do, then why are you in the studio in the first place?” ~Judith Jamison, Dancing Spirit: An Autobiography

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“You dance love, and you dance joy, and you dance dreams. And I know if I can make you smile by jumping over a couple of couches or running through a rainstorm, then I’ll be very glad to be a song and dance man.” ~Gene Kelly

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“After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.”  ~Ann Richards

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“I believe that we are never more truly and profoundly human than when we dance.”  ~José Limón

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More Dance Quotes

“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.”  ~Maya Angelou

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“Those who hear not the music think the dancers mad.”  ~African Proverb

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“There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good.”  ~Edwin Denby

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“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.”  ~Rumi

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“A fine work of art – music, dance, painting, story – has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.”  ~Robert McKee, Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

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