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.

  178 Copy quote

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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.

  122 Copy quote

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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

  59 Copy quote

• 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.

  64 Copy quote

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• 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.

  852 Copy quote

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

  Mia Michaels

  Dance, Art, Body

  67 Copy quote

• 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

  93 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.

  75 Copy quote

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• Movement should be approached like life - with enthusiasm, joy and gratitude - for movement is life,
  and life is movement, and we get out of it what we put into it.

  Ron Fletcher

  Inspirational, Life, Dance

  50 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

  83 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.

  105 Copy quote

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• If words were adequate to describe fully what the dance can do, there would be no reason for all the mighty muscular effort, the discomfort, the sweat and the splendors of that art.

  Jose Limon

  Dance, Art, Sweat

  142 Copy quote

• 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.

  83 Copy quote

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• Failure: Is it a limitation? Bad timing? It's a lot of things. It's something you can't be afraid of, because you'll stop growing. The next step beyond failure could be your biggest success in life.

  Debbie Allen

  Inspirational, Success, Failure

  72 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

  7 Copy quote

• Good choreography fuses eye, ear and mind.

  Arlene Croce

  Dance, Eye, Mind

  Arlene Croce (1977). “Afterimages”

  50 Copy quote

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• Dance every performance as if it were your last.

  Erik Bruhn

  Dance, Dancing, Lasts

  58 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

  64 Copy quote

• I am sincerely trying now to create a dance technique based entirely upon corrective exercises, created with a knowledge of human anatomy; a technique which will correct physical faults and prepare a dancer for any type of dancing he may wish to follow; a technique having all the basic movements which govern the actions of the body; combined with a knowledge of the origin of movement and a sense of artistic design.

  Lester Horton

  Dance, Knowledge, Exercise

  98 Copy quote

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

  Ted Shawn

  Inspirational, Dance, Art

  74 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

  80 Copy quote

• I'm not interested in fame and glory. It's just that I would like others to know what a happy dance this is.

  Frankie Manning

  Happy, Dance, Glory

  215 Copy quote

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

  Martha Graham

  Inspirational, Dance, Wings

  184 Copy quote

• Dance is not an exercise. Dance is an art.

  Alicia Alonso

  Dance, Art, Exercise

  93 Copy quote

• Strong and convincing art has never arisen from theories.

  Mary Wigman

  Dance, Art, Strong

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

  59 Copy quote

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