Quotes about dancing
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Upton Sinclair photo
Tracey Ullman photo

“I left school at 16 and went to Berlin and danced […] West Berlin, 1976. It was amazing. I wish they hadn't taken the wall down. Now it's full of east Germans wearing Versace shirts.”

Tracey Ullman (1959) English-born actress, comedian, singer, dancer, screenwriter, producer, director, author and businesswoman

"Q&A: Tracey Ullman" http://www.newsweek.com/newsmakers-127011 (Newsweek, 19 September 2004)

George William Russell photo
David Bomberg photo
Ludovico Ariosto photo

“As on the crystal surface of a lake
The trembling shafts of sunlight mirrored are,
Leaping to roof-top, and, at random glancing,
Sparkle and gleam, in all directions dancing.”

Qual d'acqua chiara il tremolante lume,
Dal sol percossa o da' notturni rai,
Per gli ampli tetti va con lungo salto
A destra et a sinistra, e basso et alto.
Canto VIII, stanza 71 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

Olivia Munn photo
Danny Tidwell photo

“I don’t even know if I’ll ever feel what I did when he finished dancing his solo on Wednesday night’s [2007-08-15] show. When he left the ballet world, he was losing his love of dance, and to me, watching that solo, he came full circle. He came back.”

Danny Tidwell (1984) American dancer

Denise Wall, Tidwell's mother, the morning before the final results show. In her mind "he had already won" regardless of the outcome
Rutherford, Laine M. (August 17, 2007). "Beach's Tidwell is voted America's second-favorite dancer" http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=130465&ran=89902 HamptonRoads.com. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
About

John Muir photo

“Surely all God's people, however serious and savage, great or small, like to play. Whales and elephants, dancing, humming gnats, and invisibly small mischievous microbes, — all are warm with divine radium and must have lots of fun in them.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

The Story of My Boyhood and Youth http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/the_story_of_my_boyhood_and_youth/ (1913), chapter 5: Young Hunters
1910s

Fred Astaire photo
Donna Haraway photo

“Though both are bound in the spiral dance, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess.”

"A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women : The Reinvention of Nature (1991), pp.149-181.

Zainab Salbi photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Victor Villaseñor photo
St. Vincent (musician) photo
Ken Wilber photo
Hayley Jensen photo
Boris Johnson photo

“I don't see why people are so snooty about Channel 5. It has some respectable documentaries about the Second World War. It also devotes considerable airtime to investigations into lap dancing, and other related and vital subjects.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

"What has the BBC come to? Toilets, that's what", Daily Telegraph, 14 March 2002, p. 29.
2000s, 2002

Manmohan Singh photo

“I am delighted to hear the popularity of Odori Maharaja among young people here. Our children were delighted to see Odori Asimo - the dancing robot!”

Manmohan Singh (1932) 13th Prime Minister of India

On the popularity of Rajnikanth in Japan, as quoted in "'Dancing Maharaja' Rajnikant is a rage in Japan" http://www.hindustantimes.com/nm20/dancing-maharaja-rajnikant-is-a-rage-in-japan/article1-185499.aspx, Hindustan Times (15 December 2006)
2006-2010

Albrecht Thaer photo
Marcus Tullius Cicero photo
Danny Tidwell photo

“This latest skirmish in the high art/low art war has played out most fiercely over Mr. Tidwell, who shocked balletomanes when he left American Ballet Theater in 2005, then added insult to injury by joining the third season of “So You Think You Can Dance.””

Danny Tidwell (1984) American dancer

The New York Times
La Rocco Claudia. "TV Viewers Discover Dance, and the Debate Is Joined" http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/arts/dance/21revo.html?ref=dance#, The New York Times, September 21, 2007
About

Nas photo

“Who give you the latest dances, trends, and fashion, But when it comes to residuals, they look past us”

Nas (1973) American rapper, record producer and entrepreneur

America
On Albums, Untitled (2008)

George W. Bush photo
Tom McCarthy (writer) photo

“I love to dance.”

Aileen Osborn Webb (1892–1979) American patron of the arts

Gordon, Dane R. Rochester Institute of Technology: Industrial Development and Educational Innovation in an American City. New York: E. Mellen, 1982.

Karl Pilkington photo

“I've never understood what pole dancing's about anyway. It's a waste of a good skill. Get into scaffolding or something.”

Karl Pilkington (1972) English television personality, social commentator, actor, author and former radio producer

The Moaning of Life, General Quotes

Hossein Shariatmadari photo
Pete Doherty photo
Daniel Levitin photo
Horace photo

“Now is the time for drinking, now the time to dance footloose upon the earth.”
Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus.

Horace book Odes

Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero
pulsanda tellus.
Book I, ode xxxvii, line 1
Odes (c. 23 BC and 13 BC)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo
Warren Buffett photo
John Zerzan photo
M.I.A. photo

“Nobody wants to be dancing to political songs. Every bit of music out there that’s making it into the mainstream is really about nothing. I wanted to see if I could write songs about something important and make it sound like nothing. And it kind of worked.”

M.I.A. (1975) British recording artist, songwriter, painter and director

Interview http://niralimagazine.com/2004/10/not-so-missing-in-action/ with Nirali magazine (October 2004)
Sourced quotes

Anna Akhmatova photo
Ben Harper photo

“When your whole world is shaken from all the risks we have taken,
Dance with me, dance with me into the colors of the dusk.”

Ben Harper (1969) singer-songwriter and musician

Into the Colors.
Song lyrics, Lifeline (2007)

Lorin Morgan-Richards photo

“Autumn colors remind us we are all one dancing in the wind.”

Lorin Morgan-Richards (1975) American poet, cartoonist, and children's writer

Quote included in list https://www.simonandschuster.com/getliterary/our-favorite-literary-quotes-about-autumn/ "11 of Our Favorite Literary Quotes about Autumn” (23 September 2019).

Leon M. Lederman photo
Natacha Rambova photo
Cormac McCarthy photo
Daniel Handler photo
Colleen Fitzpatrick photo
Carole King photo
Peter Cook photo
Neil Diamond photo

“Money talks,
But it don't sing and dance.
And it don't walk.
And long as I can have you
Here with me, I'd much rather be
Forever in blue jeans.”

Neil Diamond (1941) American singer-songwriter

Forever in Blue Jeans
Song lyrics, You Don't Bring Me Flowers (1978)

Jean-François Millet photo

“I remember being awakened one morning by voices in the room where I slept. There was a whizzing sound which made itself heard between the voices now and then. It was the sound of spinning-wheels, and the voices were those of women spinning and carding wool. The dust of the room danced in a ray of sunshine which shone through the high narrow window that lighted the room..”

Jean-François Millet (1814–1875) French painter

Quote, c. 1870; as cited by Julia Cartwright in Jean Francois Millet, his Life and Letters, Swan Sonnenschein en Co, Lim. London / The Macmillian Company, New York; second edition, September 1902, p. 12
taken from Millet's youth-memories, he wrote down on request of his friend and later biographer Alfred Sensier, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sensier]
1870 - 1875

Tom Robbins photo
Edgar Lee Masters photo
Moby photo

“I got a phone call from Ricky Martin's management asking me if I'd like to do something with him in Florida around the winter music conference. My answer is as follows: 'I would consider doing something with Ricky Martin if and only if he publicly apologizes for performing at George W's inauguration and if he confirms that when he danced next to George W. Bush at the inauguration he could smell brimstone and that George W. Bush is in fact the spawn of Satan. So if Ricky Martin goes on national television to confirm that George W. is the spawn of Satan then I will perform with him. Otherwise no deal. And only if we can do a cover of 'In a Gadda-da-vida', but The Simpsons version, 'In the garden of Eden' (to which reverend Lovejoy responds ""that sounds like rock and or roll""). And, by the way, I'm a pretty easygoing young-ish person, so if you ever see me walking down the street just stop me and say hello. We're all in the same boat, right? of course you'll have to make it past my phalanx of security guards who are all ex-NFL linebackers, and the cadre of dobermans, and the perma-moat that I wear that's filled with electric eels and vicious sea monkeys. So if you see me just come and say hi. I'm normal.”

Moby (1965) Activist, American musician, DJ and photographer

"predictions" http://www.moby.com/journal/2001-02-15/predictions.html, journal entry (15 February 2001) at Moby's website, moby.com http://www.moby.com/

Max Pechstein photo

“Contented sleep releases the limbs. We await full moon. Await the dance!”

Max Pechstein (1881–1955) German artist

4 short quotes of Max Pechstein, 1918, in Aus dem Palau-Tagebuch, 'Das Kunstblatt' 2, no. 6, p. 179; as cited in 'The Revival of Printmaking in Germany', I. K. Rigby; in German Expressionist Prints and Drawings - Essays Vol 1.; published by Museum Associates, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California & Prestel-Verlag, Germany, 1986, p. 43

Louis-ferdinand Céline photo

“I should be able to get the alligators to dance to the tune of the pan pipe.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline (1894–1961) French writer

March 30, 1947
Source: Letters to Milton Hindus (1947-1949), Les Cahiers de la NRF, Gallimard ISBN 2070134296

Mikhail Baryshnikov photo
Vanna Bonta photo
Neil Patrick Harris photo
Gino Severini photo

“The spiraling shapes, and the beautiful contrasts of yellow and blue, that are intuitively felt one evening while living the movements of a girl dancing may be found again later, through a process of plastic preferences or aversions, or through combination of both, in the concentric circling of an aeroplane or in the onrush of an express train”

Gino Severini (1883–1966) Italian painter

In his manifesto 'The Plastic Analogies of Dynamism', c. 1914; as quoted in Inventing Futurism: The Art and Politics of Artificial Optimism, by Christine Poggi, Princeton University Press, 2009, p. 218

Sacha Baron Cohen photo

“In Kazakhstan the favorite hobbies are disco dancing, archery, rape, and table tennis.”

Sacha Baron Cohen (1971) English stand-up comedian, writer, actor, and voice actor

Borat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2l0nu6m2cw.

Kathy Griffin photo
Marcus Aurelius photo
Michelle Branch photo
Rachele Brooke Smith photo

“I worked so hard to be so versatile in so many different things. There’s just not a lot of girls who can do ballet and flips and break dance and crazy hip-hop moves. So I would really encourage young dancers and actors to work to be as versatile as possible.”

Rachele Brooke Smith (1987) American actress

Exclusive Interview with Center Stage: On Pointe’s Rachele Brooke Smith http://talknerdywithus.com/2016/06/14/exclusive-interview-with-center-stage-on-pointes-rachele-brooke-smith/ (June 14, 2016)

Muhammad bin Tughluq photo

“Like a dance, conflict escalation generally requires the participation of both parties.”

Brian Mistler American Gestalt therapist

George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden Are Dancing Together (2003)

J.M. Coetzee photo
Bawa Muhaiyaddeen photo
Habib Bourguiba photo

“Bourguiba on people who patronized the Zéro de Conduite (Zero for Conduct), nightclub- "practice a shameful exhibitionism in morbid and degrading dances."”

Habib Bourguiba (1903–2000) Tunisian politician

[Tunisia: Shudder at the Knees, TIME, Friday, Aug. 26, 1966, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842668,00.html, September 6, 2011]

Mike Oldfield photo
Glenn Greenwald photo
Richard Henry Horne photo

“Far out at sea,—the sun was high,
While veer'd the wind and flapped the sail,
We saw a snow-white butterfly
Dancing before the fitful gale,
Far out at sea.”

Richard Henry Horne (1802–1884) English poet and critic

Genius; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 88.

Georges Bataille photo
William Hazlitt photo
Dylan Moran photo
Halldór Laxness photo
Craig Ferguson photo

“By the way, _____ was a name I used to dance under.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

citation needed
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2005–2014), "By the way…" variations

P. L. Travers photo
Emily Brontë photo
Billy Joel photo
Eric Blom photo

“Blues. An American dance stemming from the Foxtrot, the speed of which it reduced and into which it brought a deliberately contrived dismal atmosphere. When Blues are sung their words seem to aim at attaining to the utmost depths of gloom and inanity.”

Eric Blom (1888–1959) Swiss-born British-naturalised music lexicographer, musicologist, music critic, music biographer and transl…

Article, Blues, p. 60
Everyman's Dictionary of Music (London: J. M Dent & Sons; 3rd ed. 1958)

Sri Chinmoy photo

“No mind, no form, I only exist; now ceased all will and thought; the final end of [Nature]]'s dance, I am it whom I have sought.”

Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) Indian writer and guru

"The Absolute", p. 1
My Flute (1972)

Karl Denninger photo
Courtney Love photo
Toby Keith photo

“You shouldn't kiss me like this
Unless you mean it like that
Cause I'll just close my eyes
And I won't know where I'm at.
We'll get lost on this dance floor,
Spinnin' around
And around
And around
And around.”

Toby Keith (1961) American country music singer and actor

You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This.
Song lyrics, How Do You Like Me Now?! (1999)

Megan Mullally photo
Paul Gauguin photo

“I have lingered among the nymphs of Corot, dancing in the sacred wood of Ville-d'Avray.”

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist artist

quote in a letter - late in Gauguin's life, from the Marquesas-Islands; as quoted by Colin B. Bailey, in The Annenberg Collection: Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-impressionism, publish. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2009, p. 185
1890s - 1910s

Jesse Helms photo

“To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn't have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing.”

Jesse Helms (1921–2008) American politician

1956) on criticism that a fictional character in his newspaper column was offensive cited The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/26/weekinreview/ideas-trends-the-quotations-of-chairman-helms-race-god-aids-and-more.html (2001
1950s

William Tyndale photo
Fred Astaire photo

“The history of dance on film begins with Astaire.”

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

Gene Kelly in Heeley, David, producer and director. Fred Astaire: Puttin' on his Top Hat and Fred Astaire: Change Partners and Dance (two television programs written by John L. Miller), PBS, March 1980. (M).