Quotes about dancer
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Arthur Symons photo
Fred Astaire photo

“What do dancers think of Fred Astaire? It's no secret. We hate him. He gives us a complex because he's too perfect. His perfection is an absurdity. It's too hard to face.”

Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

Mikhail Baryshnikov at the 1978 Kennedy Center Honours for Fred Astaire and George Balanchine, as quoted in Satchell, Tim. Astaire, The Biography. Hutchinson, London. 1987. ISBN 0-09-173736-2 p. 255.

Jean Cocteau photo

“People would say to Al Brown: "You are not a boxer. You are a dancer." He laughed at this, and won.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

Diary of an Unknown (1988)

Gene Kelly photo
Hans Christian Andersen photo
Erik Naggum photo
Merce Cunningham photo
Waheeda Rehman photo

“Half the campus was designed by Bottom the Weaver, half by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; Benton had been endowed with one to begin with, and had smiled and sweated and and spoken for the other. A visitor looked under black beams, through leaded casements (past apple boughs, past box, past chairs like bath-tubs on broomsticks) to a lawn ornamented with one of the statues of David Smith; in the months since the figure had been put in its place a shrike had deserted for it a neighboring thorn tree, and an archer had skinned her leg against its farthest spike. On the table in the President’s waiting-room there were copies of Town and Country, the Journal of the History of Ideas, and a small magazine—a little magazine—that had no name. One walked by a mahogany hat-rack, glanced at the coat of arms on an umbrella-stand, and brushed with one’s sleeve something that gave a ghostly tinkle—four or five black and orange ellipsoids, set on grey wires, trembled in the faint breeze of the air-conditioning unit: a mobile. A cloud passed over the sun, and there came trailing from the gymnasium, in maillots and blue jeans, a melancholy procession, four dancers helping to the infirmary a friend who had dislocated her shoulder in the final variation of The Eye of Anguish.”

Source: Pictures from an Institution (1954) [novel], Chapter 1: “The President, Mrs., and Derek Robbins”, p. 3; opening paragraph of novel

Fred Astaire photo

“As a dancer, I out-Fred the nimblest Astaire.”

Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster in Joy in the Morning (1947).

Pierre Monteux photo
Peter Cook photo
Fred Astaire photo

“As a dancer he stands alone, and no singer knows his way around a song like Fred Astaire.”

Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

Irving Berlin, quoted in Puttin' on the Ritz, BBC Programme Acquisition, 1999.

Cat Deeley photo

“The thing about dancers is they're a certain breed. You don't do it to become rich and famous, you don't do it to have a really long career or to be the star, you do it because you can't imagine your life not doing it.”

Cat Deeley (1976) English television presenter, actress, singer and model

"'So You Think You Can Dance' Shaking Things Up For Season Nine" at MTV News (24 May 2012) http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1685776/so-you-think-you-can-dance-season-nine.jhtml

Mani Madhava Chakyar photo

““He had his own style. He could convey his thoughts through expressions. His eye movement was superb!”
Birju Maharaj- great Kathak dancer, selecting him as one of the ten finest dancers he has known, 2000”

Mani Madhava Chakyar (1899–1990) Indian actor

Abhinaya and Netrābhinaya
Source: Birju Maharaj- the Kathak maestro on the ten finest dancers he has known http://health.rediff.com/millenni/birju.htm, rediff.com: The Millennium Special

Balasaraswati photo

“It was my mother, Jayammal, who had me trained as a dancer despite strong family opposition.”

Balasaraswati (1918–1984) Indian dancer

Quoted in "Balasaraswati: Her Art and Life", page=31
Quote

Fred Astaire photo

“I once said that fifty years from now, the only one of today's dancers who will be remembered is Fred Astaire.”

Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

Gene Kelly quoted in Shipman, David. The Great Movie Stars, The Golden Years. Crown Publishers, New York. 1970. pp. 25-29 as referenced in Billman, Larry: Fred Astaire - A Bio-bibliography, Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1997. ISBN 0-313-29010-5 p. 351.

Gino Severini photo

“[the] circular rhythmic movement of a dancer, the folds of whose dress are held out by means of a hoop. These folds preserve their exterior form, modified in a uniform manner through the rotary movement. In order the better to convey the notion of relief, I have attempted to model the essential portions in a manner almost sculptural. Light and ambiance act simultaneously on the forms in movement.”

Gino Severini (1883–1966) Italian painter

from Severini's text, in the entry for the Marlborough Gallery exhibition; as cited by Daniela Fonti, Gino Severini Catalogo Ragionato, Milan: Edizione Phillipe Daverio, 1988, p. 130
Severine is describing here his painting 'Dancer at Pigalle' https://theartstack.com/artist/gino-severini-1/dancer-pigalle, 1912

Fred Astaire photo

“There comes a day when people begin to say, 'Why doesn't that old duffer retire?' I want to get out while they're still saying Astaire is a hell of a dancer.”

Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

Fred Astaire in Time. "The New Pictures: 'Blue Skies'". October 14, 1946, p. 103. (M).

M. Balamuralikrishna photo
Clement Clarke Moore photo
Vyjayanthimala photo
Cat Stevens photo

“Her breath a warm fire
In every lovers heart
A mistress to magicians
And a dancer to the gods”

Cat Stevens (1948) British singer-songwriter

Angelsea
Song lyrics, Catch Bull at Four (1972)

Gino Severini photo

“[Severini referred to himself as a].. primitive who is thrilled by the movement of a dancer and boulevard filled with people.”

Gino Severini (1883–1966) Italian painter

(c. 1911), as quoted by Fonti, 'The Dance', p. 15; as cited in: Shannon N. Pritchard, Gino Severini and the symbolist aesthetics of his futurist dance imagery, 1910-1915 https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/pritchard_shannon_n_200305_ma.pdf Diss. uga, 2003, p. 33

Fred Astaire photo
P.G. Wodehouse photo
Richard Leakey photo
Isadora Duncan photo
Aurangzeb photo

“The village of Sattara near Aurangabad was my hunting ground. Here on the top of a hill, stood a temple with an image of Khande Rai. By God's grace I demolished it, and forbade the temple dancers (muralis) to ply their shameful profession.”

Aurangzeb (1618–1707) Sixth Mughal Emperor

Satara (Maharashtra) Kalimat-i-Tayyibat, quoted in Sarkar, Jadu Nath, History of Aurangzeb, Vol. II, p. 94 https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.62677/page/n293
Quotes from late medieval histories

Elton John photo
Birju Maharaj photo

“Solo dance was complete by one. Now because everybody is bored, feeling bored by one dancer only they are taking 10,20 people.”

Birju Maharaj (1938) Indian dancer

About the trend in Bollywood films which he felt was to keep the interest of the public though group choreography in "Movement in Stills: The Dance and Life of Kumudini Lakhia", page=178

Fred Astaire photo

“He is the most interesting, the most inventive, the most elegant dancer of our times… you see a little bit of Astaire in everybody's dancing--a pause here, a move there. It was all Astaire's originally.”

Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

George Balanchine, quoted in Thomas, Bob. Astaire, the Man, The Dancer. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1985. ISBN 0297784021 p. 33.

Peter Greenaway photo
Gene Kelly photo

“I really don't know why I clicked. I didn't want to be a dancer, I just did it to work my way through college. But I was always an athlete and gymnast, so it came naturally.”

Gene Kelly (1912–1996) American dancer, actor, singer, director, producer and choreographer

Quoted in "Gene Kelly's Musical Memories" by Rex Reed, in The Chicago Tribune (November 29, 1970)

Mani Madhava Chakyar photo
Alesha Dixon photo

“By the way, dancers are not human beings. How can you be human and do what they do?”

Alesha Dixon (1978) English singer, dancer, rapper, model and television presenter

Alesha Dixon cited in Dixon tipped for Strictly success http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7156420.stm at bbc.co.uk, 22 December, 2007: Referring bookmakers favourite to win BBC One's ballroom show Strictly Come Dancing.

Hema Malini photo
Fred Astaire photo

“He's a genius…a classical dancer like I never saw in my life.”

Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

Mikhail Baryshnikov in "Interview with Mike Wallace", 60 Minutes, CBS Television. February 18, 1979. (M).

Fred Astaire photo

“I don't think that I will plunge the nation into war by stating that Fred Astaire is the greatest tap-dancer in the world.”

Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

Robert Benchley in "Hail to the King!!" The New Yorker, November 29, 1930, pp. 33-36. (M).

Robert Fulghum photo

“They've added an important dimension to the lives of the young people of their town — that lightness of being that belongs to dancers.”

Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer

"The Lightness Of Being" (25 April 2007) Pack Creek Ranch, San Juan County, Utah http://robertfulghum.com/index.php/fulghumweb/entry/377_the_lightness_of_being/
Web Journal
Context: The four of us are talking dancing, and laughing, and recalling the joys of being out on the floor and having that timeless feeling that comes from being caught up in the music. "Nobody should miss that," says Dave.
On the face of it, Dave's family and I don't have a lot in common. They're Mormons and Republicans. I'm a Unitarian and a Democrat. When Dave was on the County Council, we were on different sides of some important issues. I grew up a Southern Baptist in Texas where dancing was a mortal sin in the eyes of Almighty God, but coffee was OK. Dave grew up a Latter Day Saint where dancing was considered righteous – but not coffee.
But... we're dancers. And laughers. That's a strong bond right there. And we're committed to being useful in our world. And if you love something, like dancing, and you pass it on, like Dave and his wife do, you've been very useful by my standards. Dancing is a lifetime, equal opportunity sport.
And I will never drive by Dave's garage again without having the finest feelings for the man and his wife and mother who are inside taking good care of their corner of this world. They've added an important dimension to the lives of the young people of their town — that lightness of being that belongs to dancers.

Martha Graham photo

“I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.”

Martha Graham (1894–1991) American dancer and choreographer

As quoted in "About Martha Graham" at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance http://marthagraham.org/resources/aboutgraham.

Peter Cook photo

“Hitler was a very peculiar person wasn't he? He was another dominator you know — Hitler. And he was a wonderful ballroom dancer. Not many people know that.”

Peter Cook (1937–1995) British architect

"The World Domination League" (1964)
E. L. Wisty
Context: Hitler was a very peculiar person wasn't he? He was another dominator you know — Hitler. And he was a wonderful ballroom dancer. Not many people know that. … Of course Mrs Hitler was a charming woman, wasn't she? She's still alive, you know. I saw her down the Edgware Road only the other day. She'd just popped into the chemist's to buy something, and I saw her sign the cheque "Mrs Hitler" so I knew it was she. I tried to go up and talk to her, but she slipped away into the crowd. I was hoping she'd be able to come to the next meeting of the World Domination League. Not many people do.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo
Philip K. Dick photo

“He had weaved between them and among them as they came, a dancer leaping over glittering sword-points of pink fire. He had survived.”

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American author

The Golden Man (1954)
Context: The chamber was an inferno of energy. The figure had completely disappeared. Wisdom waited a moment, then nodded to the technicians operating the cube. They touched guide buttons and the muzzles slowed and died. Some sank back into the cube. All became silent. The works of the cube ceased humming.
Cris Johnson was still alive. He emerged from the settling clouds of ash, blackened and singed. But unhurt. He had avoided each beam. He had weaved between them and among them as they came, a dancer leaping over glittering sword-points of pink fire. He had survived.

Robert Fulghum photo

“I grew up a Southern Baptist in Texas where dancing was a mortal sin in the eyes of Almighty God, but coffee was OK. Dave grew up a Latter Day Saint where dancing was considered righteous – but not coffee.
But . . . we're dancers. And laughers. That's a strong bond right there. And we're committed to being useful in our world.”

Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer

"The Lightness Of Being" (25 April 2007) Pack Creek Ranch, San Juan County, Utah http://robertfulghum.com/index.php/fulghumweb/entry/377_the_lightness_of_being/
Web Journal
Context: The four of us are talking dancing, and laughing, and recalling the joys of being out on the floor and having that timeless feeling that comes from being caught up in the music. "Nobody should miss that," says Dave.
On the face of it, Dave's family and I don't have a lot in common. They're Mormons and Republicans. I'm a Unitarian and a Democrat. When Dave was on the County Council, we were on different sides of some important issues. I grew up a Southern Baptist in Texas where dancing was a mortal sin in the eyes of Almighty God, but coffee was OK. Dave grew up a Latter Day Saint where dancing was considered righteous – but not coffee.
But... we're dancers. And laughers. That's a strong bond right there. And we're committed to being useful in our world. And if you love something, like dancing, and you pass it on, like Dave and his wife do, you've been very useful by my standards. Dancing is a lifetime, equal opportunity sport.
And I will never drive by Dave's garage again without having the finest feelings for the man and his wife and mother who are inside taking good care of their corner of this world. They've added an important dimension to the lives of the young people of their town — that lightness of being that belongs to dancers.

Richard Wilbur photo

“It is a graph of a theme that flings
The dancer kneeling on nothing into the wings”

Richard Wilbur (1921–2017) American poet

"Grace" in The Poems of Richard Wilbur (1963)
Context: Hebetude. It is a graph of a theme that flings
The dancer kneeling on nothing into the wings,
And Nijinsky hadn't the words to make the laws
For learning to loiter in air; he merely said,
"I merely leap and pause."

Madhuri Dixit photo
Rukmini Devi Arundale photo
Goldie Hawn photo

“Starting out as a dancer gave me an aspect of mindfulness that I didn’t even realise that I was getting…because to dance is to be aware of every piece of your body while you’re moving. It’s like a meditation unto itself.”

Goldie Hawn (1945) American actress, film director, and producer.

On how meditation complimented her dance background in “Goldie Hawn: ‘I was born with a high set point for happiness’” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/apr/13/goldie-hawn-i-was-born-with-a-high-set-point-for-happiness in The Guardian (2020 Apr 13)

Goldie Hawn photo
Harry Reid photo

“I said … unprepared, unscripted, that, "I know how to fight and I know how to dance, and I'd much rather dance than fight." ... What I didn't tell everybody was I was always a better fighter than dancer.”

Harry Reid (1939) American politician

Source: "Reid Says He's A Fighter Who'd Rather Dance", All Things Considered, NPR (18 May 2010) https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126905578

“For me it's important to make great dance songs, growing up as a dancer. You know, not only just getting lost in the beat but getting lost in the lyrics whether it’s about having a great time or having lyrics with more of a purposeful meaning.”

Victoria Duffield (1995) Canadian actor, singer and dancer

Source: Interview with Victoria Duffield http://www.liveinlimbo.com/2011/09/24/interviews/888-interview-victoria-duffield.html (24 September 2011)

Gloria E. Anzaldúa photo

“Write with your eyes like painters, with your ears like musicians, with your feet like dancers. You are the truthsayer with quill and torch. Write with your tongues of fire. Don't let the pen banish you from yourself.”

"Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers" (1981)
Source: in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, p. 171