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Dance Quotes

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Dance Quotes

“We artists can't be stopped because we live and breathe to speak our truth to write our truth to paint, and sing, and dance what we see, what we feel, what we know inside. And we will always keep trying to find a way to reach some kind of audience, even if it's in a dingy basement. And for those whose art is the jest? Our beloved jesters (can they eliminate the comedians' platforms)? They dance on the line between reportage and art. But they may be the most dangerous of all to the looming autocracy, because they make people laugh at the king (the one thing he most cannot stand). And as the people laugh, they're also learning the truth: the king has no clothes.”

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Author:Shellen Lubin
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“When you are sad, celebrate, and you are giving a new composition to sadness. You are bringing something to sadness which will transform it. You are bringing celebration to it. Angry? -- have a beautiful dance. In the beginning it will be angry. You will start dancing and the dance will be angry, aggressive, violent. By and by, it will become softer and softer and softer, when suddenly, you will have forgotten anger. The energy has changed into dancing. But when you are angry, you can't think of dancing. When you are sad, you can't think of singing. Why not make your sadness a song? Sing, play on your flute. In the beginning the notes will be sad, but nothing is wrong with a sad note. Have you heard, in the afternoon sometimes, when everything is hot, burning hot, fire all around, and suddenly from a mango grove you can hear a cuckoo start singing? In the beginning, the note is sad. She is calling her lover, her beloved, on a hot afternoon. Everything is fiery all around, and she is hankering for love. A very sad note, but beautiful. By and by, the sad note changes into a happy note. The lover starts responding from another grove. Now it is no more a hot afternoon; everything is cooling down in the heart. Now the note is different. When the lover responds, everything has changed. It is an alchemical change. You are sad? -- start singing, praying, dancing. Whatsoever you can do, do, and by and by, the baser metal is changed into a higher metal -- gold. Once you know the key, your life will never be the same again. You can unlock any door. And this is the master key: to celebrate everything. If you are sad, then I say celebrate, dance, sing. What are you to lose? At the most, sadness will be lost, nothing else. But you think it is impossible. And the very idea that it is impossible will not allow you to give it a try. And I say it is one of the most easy things in the world, because energy is neutral. The same energy becomes sadness; the same energy becomes anger; the same energy becomes sexuality; the same energy becomes com passion; the same energy becomes meditation. Energy is one. You don't have many types of energies. You don't have many separate pockets of energy where this energy is labelled 'sadness' and this energy is labelled 'happiness'. Energies are not pigeon-holed, they are not separated. There exists no watertight compartment in you. You are simply one. This one energy becomes sadness, this one energy becomes anger. It is up to you. One has to learn the secret, the art of how to transform energies. You simply give a direction and the same energy starts moving. And when there is a possibility of transforming anger into bliss, greed into compassion, jealousy into love... you don't know what you are losing. You don't know what you are missing. You are missing the whole point of being here in this universe. Give it a try.”

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Book:Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega Volume 4
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“Membership finds its ceremonial endorsement through the dance. In almost all tribal communities dancing has had an important role in reinforcing the communal spirit, and in particular in ceremonies of initiation and marriage. It represents a supreme act of surrender to the tribe and its ruling deities. In dancing we set all purpose aside and are governed by the spirit of the dance. At the same time, dancing has a peculiar social intentionality – in the normal case dancing is a ‘dancing with’, a fitting of one’s steps and gestures to the steps and gestures of others. In the old culture of Europe dancing was therefore a part of courtship – a kind of stylised intimacy in which the sexual allure of the body could be displayed and enjoyed without social catastrophe. For young lovers, dancing was a way of going ‘part-hog’, as Harold Pinter would put it, while behaving with proper decorum and with an excited consciousness of their embodiment. But it was not only young lovers who danced. Traditional dances were formation dances, like the minuet, the jig and the saraband, in which you changed partners, to find yourself dancing with someone (your grandmother perhaps) in whom you had no sexual interest whatsoever. In the Mediterranean, it was even unheard of for the sexes to dance together: the men performed in a troupe, and then the girls, each sex with an eye for the other but decorously removed from physical contact. In this way dancing became a ceremony, in which the community’s bid for eternity was enacted beneath the stars. Love, sex and the body are perceived differently by young people today; courtesy and courtship have disappeared from their dancing, since they have disappeared from their lives. The idea of dancing as an orderly affirmation of community is dead. Dancing has become a social and sexual release, among people who expressly represent themselves, in the dance, as sexual objects, even when, and especially when, they dance without a partner. Indeed the concept of the partner – of the one with whom you are dancing, and who agrees to dance after an exchange of courtesies – hardly engages with the new reality. You all dance together, and every step or shake or gesture is right just so long as it feels right. Nor is this new kind of dancing of marginal significance. On the contrary, it is the central episode in the youth culture, the moment when the individual renews his attachment to the group and is raised to a heightened level of excitement and a sense of the rightness of being what he is and doing what he does.”

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Book:An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture
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“When I ache, when I'm tired or just lonely living in the town on my own, I know I have to keep on going. I walk into my theater and see my stage which still calls out to me and pleads with me, "Use me. Create for me." It's there ready to offer itself for more creatively [sic]. It is up to me to use it again. My theater says to me, "Take me. Do something with me. I'm ready for the challenge. Give me something to live for; something to look forward to.”

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Book:To Dance on Sands: The Life And Art of Death Valley's Marta Becket
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“Contrary to the dogma downloaded from our many cult-like institutions of higher (actually lower) learning, we’re not in any way separate from the quantum dance of the imagination; we’re inextricably bound up in it. In a mind-melting paradox, we somehow manage to give rise to the quantum dance … even as it dances us!”

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Book:Get Out of Here Alive: Inner Alchemy & Immortality
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“Deep within the recesses of your being, there exists a serene stillness, a hidden sanctuary where the tumult of the outside world gradually fades into silence. It is a refuge you can always return to, a sacred space where the weight of life dissipates and your true self blossoms, much like a fragile flower slowly unfurling its petals to welcome the caress of the sun. Your essence mirrors a stunning garden, vibrant and alive, where each bloom narrates tales of beauty and grace. This is hallowed ground, where the soft whispers of your heart intertwine with the gentle rustling of leaves, creating a symphony that resonates in perfect harmony. Within this enchanted haven, the world softens, and time seems to linger, allowing you to savor each moment. In the delicate balance of your masculine and feminine energies, there exists a kind of magic that transcends the ordinary. This exquisite equilibrium encapsulates the very essence of sensuality ~ a divine dance of strength and softness, fervor and gentleness. In this state of harmony, you emanate an irresistible allure, beckoning others to step into the warmth of your garden, where love and authenticity thrive in rich abundance...”

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Author:Kaia Emerald
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“But ecstatic rituals are also good, and expressive of our artistic temperament and spiritual yearnings as well as our solidarity. So how can civilization be regarded as a form of progress if it precludes something as distinctively human, and deeply satisfying, as the collective joy of festivities and ecstatic rituals? In a remarkable essay titled "The Decline of the Choral Dance," Paul Halmos wrote in 1952 that the ancient and universal tradition of the choral dance - meaning the group dance, as opposed to the relative recent, European - derived practice of dancing in couples - was an expression of our "group-ward drives" and "biological sociality." Hence its disappearance within complex societies, and especially within industrial civilization, can only represent a "decline of our biosocial life" - a painfully disturbing conclusion.”

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Book:Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy
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“كلُّ الساسةِ اليوم - حسب بونتوفان - راقصون بوجهٍ ما، وكلُّ الراقصين يتعاطون السياسة. مع ذلك، لا ينبغي الخلط بينهما. ما به يتميّز الراقص عن رجل السياسة أنّ الأوّل لا يطمحُ إلى السلطةِ وأنّما إلى المجد، لا يصبو إلى أن يفرض على العالَم هذا النظام الاجتماعي أو ذاك، بل أن يحتلَّ المسرح َكي يجعلَ أناهُ تتألّق”

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Book:Slowness
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