Dancer Quotes

The first 2 weeks, they didn't learn the piece - they went through the process of how the piece was made.

The dance world is too small in lots of ways - it's too intense, it rattles around itself, and it needs exposing to other ideas.

One of our problems is our sense of discipline - dancers have an extraordinary sense of self-discipline.

On the other hand in London you can get an audience that desires dance to go as far as it can go: they've seen the bricks of ideas built over a period so therefore there is an acceptance of what otherwise might seem out on a limb.

It's not just for its influence on us, but to know that we can play a part in it, to understand the influence that we have outside our own existence.

Independent dance - and, fine, it's a very good thing that it remains independent - is a much tougher life: all dancers expect that, and accept that there will be periods of not being able to work, provided there are choice moments during the year when they really can work.

If I only made dances about my own experience in dance, it would always be on my track, and I don't want that, I want to be on the track of where dance can take me.

I don't start a piece knowing exactly what effect it's going to have. There is a seed of an idea that I could never articulate, right at the beginning of the piece, literally like one cell.

Yes - it's the same in any other work - the more you massage your thinking the more capable I believe you are of expanding how you go about things and learning.

I cannot stand authority.

I cannot belong to a nonprofit organization because when you receive grants, you have to make such great compromises with your artistic plans.

I am teaching more. That is what I do best.

I am not trying to do material which I cannot do full out.

I - you know, I'm not an actor.

Dances have a second and third life. You feel they are never ready. They always have a chance for another life.

Although I don't gamble in life - I've never played poker - I do gamble on stage. I gamble with myself: 'Can I do this?'

A country like Belgium, or socialist countries in central Europe spend more money on art education than the United States, which is a really puzzling thought.

You see, dancers are quite mature people because they start performing so early. They become professionals when they start to take everyday classes.

You cannot be happy with your family while being personally unhappy with your work. It's a Catch-22 kind of thing.

In the second part of life you get rid of stuff you've accumulated.

I really reject that kind of comparison that says, Oh, he is the best. This is the second best. There is no such thing.

Every ballet, whether or not successful artistically or with the public, has given me something important.

Creative Artists Agency put together a project of extraordinary mediocrity and colossal stupidity. Otherwise, it was great.

Astaire was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.

I get speeding ticket like everybody else. If the restaurant is full I'm waiting in line like everybody else.

I've always said, 'I am a selector, I am not defector' - the first few phrases in English I learned. I said I hate 'defector'; something defective about the people. It's a bad word.

To achieve some depth in your field requires a lot of sacrifices. Want to or not, you're thinking about what you're doing in life-in my case, dancing.

People of art should never get married and have children, because it's a selfish experience.

I am not the first straight dancer or the last.

Dancing is my obsession. My life.