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Dancer Quotes

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Dancer Quotes

“The dance, just as the performance of the actor, is kinesthetic art, art of the muscle sense. The awareness of tension and relaxation within his own body, the sense of balance that distinguishes the proud stability of the vertical from the risky adventures of thrusting and falling--these are the tools of the dancer.”

ArtBodyFallActorsAwarenessAdventureProudBalanceToolsPerformancesDanceTensionMusclesDancerStabilityBalletRelaxationVerticalDance Performance
Book:Toward a Psychology of Art: Collected Essays
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“If one had to define one essential gift with which a dancer needs to be endowed, there might be a rush of answers. A beautiful body, grace of line, graciousness of spirit, joy in the work, ability to please, unswerving integrity, relentless ambition towards some abstract perfection. Certainly all these factors determine a dancer's character, and every element exists in some combination within the performing artist's presence.”

IfsNeedsCharacterBodyMightBeautifulJoySpiritArtistLinesAbilityAnswersGraceIntegrityPleaseEssentialsElementsAmbitionPerfectionDanceDetermineFactorsCombinationPerformingAbstractDancerBalletRelentlessGraciousnessPerforming ArtsBeautiful BodyPerforming Artist
Author:Lincoln Kirstein
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“I will make an average man into an average dancer, provided he be passably well made. I will teach him how to move his arms and legs, to turn his head. I will give him steadiness, brilliancy and speed; but I cannot endow him with that fire and intelligence, those graces and that expression of feeling which is the soul of true pantomime.”

MenGivingWellsMadeSoulFeelingsMovingTurnsTeachFireGraceExpressionArmsDanceAverageLegsSpeedDancerAverage ManArms And LegsSteadinessPantomimeDance MovesExpression Of Feeling
Author:Jean-Georges Noverre
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“One is born to be a dancer. No teacher can work miracles, nor will years of training make a good dancer of an untalented pupil. One may be able to acquire a certain technical facility, but no one can ever 'acquire an exceptional talent.' I have never prided myself on having an unusually gifted pupil. A Pavlova is no one's pupil but God's.”

YearsMayAbleCertainBornTeacherTalentTrainingMiracleDanceAcquireDancerGiftedExceptionalFacilityPupilsMusic And DanceUntalentedGood Dance
Author:George Balanchine
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“There are many kinds of richness, and the man who is rich because of money is the lowest as far as the categories of richness are concerned. Let me say it in this way: the man of wealth is the poorest rich man. Looked at from the side of the poor, he is the richest poor man. Looked at from the side of a creative artist, of a dancer, of a musician, of a scientist, he is the poorest rich man. And as far as the world of ultimate awakening is concerned he cannot even be called rich.”

MenWorldWayKindArtistSidesWealthPoorMoneyCreativeRichHe ManMusicianConcernedUltimateScientistLet MeAwakeningDancerCategoriesLowestRichnessPoorestRich ManPoor ManCreative ArtCreative Artists
Book:The World Beyond Time
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“The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing... there are times when the simple dignity of movement can fulfill the function of a volume of words. There are movements which impinge upon the nerves with a strength that is incomparable, for movement has power to stir the senses and emotions, unique in itself. This is the dancer's justification for being, and his reason for searching further for deeper aspects of his art.”

WayBelieveArtReasonSimpleEmotionMovementUniqueAspectDignityFunctionDancingDanceDeeperSensesDancerNervesJustificationVolumeIncomparable
Author:Doris Humphrey
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“The ballet. I saw in the fugitive beauty of a dancer's gesture a symbol of life. It was achieved at the cost of unending effort but, with all the forces of gravity against it, a fleeting poise in mid-air, a lovely attitude worthy to be made immortal in a bas-relief, it was lost as soon as it was gained and there remained no more than the memory of an exquisite emotion. So life, lived variously and largely, becomes a work of art only when brought to its beautiful conclusion and is reduced to nothingness in the moment when it arrives at perfection.”

ArtMadeMomentsBeautifulLostForceMemoriesEffortEmotionAttitudeSawsAirCostPerfectionDanceWorthyLovelyConclusionSymbolsDancerReliefImmortalWorks Of ArtBalletGravityGesturesNothingnessFleetingExquisiteUnendingFugitivePoise
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“All night have the roses heard The flute, violin, bassoon; All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd To the dancers dancing in tune; Till a silence fell with the waking bird, And a hush with the setting moon.”

NightSilenceHeardMoonBirdDancingRoseDanceSettingSettingsDancerTunesWakingAll NightViolinJust DanceHushFlutesBassoon
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Illustrated)
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“You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that fleeting moment when you feel alive. It is not for unsteady souls .”

GivingFeelsSoulMomentsShowsAlivePaintingWallDancingSticksDanceStoresDancerMuseumsBalletFleetingPrintedManuscriptsJust DanceBallet DanceFleeting MomentsBallet DancingDance Love
Book:Art performs life: Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, Bill T. Jones
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“But remember that intent is everything. One does not just jump, one lifts into the air, one rises. In the same way the lifted leg of an arabesque becomes a wing, and not a mechanical leverage like a raised trap door. This is the precise difference between dancing and acrobatics. The dancer tries to express something; the acrobat merely pulls, raises, stretches and grinds. The acrobat is lost in a web of muscles the dancer is all but invisible in projected idea.”

WayTryingDoeIdeasRememberLostDifferencesDoorsAirRaisesWingsDancingDanceRaisedLegsInvisibleLiftsMusclesDancerTrapsPreciseGrindAcrobatics
Author:Agnes de Mille
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“The dancer's body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul. The true dance is an expression of serenity; it is controlled by the profound rhythm of inner emotion. Emotion does not reach the moment of frenzy out of a spurt of action; it broods first, it sleeps like the life in the seed, and it unfolds with a gentle slowness. The Greeks understood the continuing beauty of a movement that mounted, that spread, that ended with a promise of rebirth.”

FirstsDoeSoulMomentsBodyActionSleepEmotionMovementExpressionPromiseUnderstoodDanceProfoundSpreadSeedsRhythmGentleGreekManifestationDancerControlledBalletSerenityContinuingRebirthLuminousFrenzySlowness
Author:Isadora Duncan
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“A dancer, more than any other human being, dies two deaths: the first, the physical when the powerfully trained body will no longer respond as you would wish. After all, I choreographed for myself. I never choreographed what I could not do. I changed steps in Medea and other ballets to accommodate the change. But I knew. And it haunted me. I only wanted to dance.”

FirstsHumansTwoBodyWantedDiesWishHuman BeingsStepsChangedDanceDancerBalletAccommodateMedea
Book:Blood Memory
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“I imagine a future where many of us will call ourselves dancers and collaborate to make an art which concerns itself with primary areas of life... for me, peace is a communal work process, a collective vision. The dance itself tries to exemplify a few of these methods in a truly grounded and practical way so that the people can say: yes, there are prospects of survival.”

PeopleWayTryingArtProcessVisionImagineSurvivalAreasConcernMethodDancePracticalsPrimariesDancerCollectivesGroundedProspects
Author:Anna Halprin
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“On the brilliance of James Brown's dancing − and the frustrations of bad camera-work on dancers:cers: I think James Brown is a genius you know when he's with the Famous Flames, unbelievable. I used to watch him on television and I used to get angry at the camera-man because whenever he would really start to dance they would be on a close-up so I couldn't see his feet. I'd shout "Show him! Show him!", so I could watch and learn.”

ThinkingKnowsMenShowsWould BeUsedWatchesFeetTelevisionGeniusCamerasAngryDancingDanceFlamesDancerBrownFrustrationUnbelievableBrilliance
Author:Michael Jackson
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“Ballet dancers are a self-chosen elite. To survive and surmount years of disciplinary preparation and seasons of even more arduous performance requires rigid determination and almost mindless self-abnegation. One other factor is difficult to predetermine: without a certain admixture of hysteria - sometimes masking as self-obsession, sometimes even counterfeiting incipient madness - performers, at once acrobats, artists, and animals, make little public impression.”

YearsLittlesSelfSometimesArtistCertainDifficultAnimalDeterminationPerformancesSeasonsMadnessDanceImpressionChosenObsessionFactorsPreparationDancerPerformersBalletElitesHysteriaMindlessBallet DancerSelf ObsessionAbnegation
Book:Four Centuries of Ballet: Fifty Masterworks
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