Dance Quotes

Below are some quotes most of which pertain to dance and learning/achievement. I thought they would be very meaningful to those who study dance, and hence would make a nice addition to this website. Hope you enjoy reading them.

Credit for assembling many of these goes to a dancer named Chan Park. I came across this material when I was asked to review a book that Mr. Park wrote titled, "Tango Zen: Walking Dance Meditation." I was struck by the awesome sayings that he had assembled. (You can find more information about Mr Park's book on his website: http://www.tangozen.com/.)

The D. Tutu quote, on the other hand, from my sister-in-law's Christmas 2003 letter. I just threw it in because it's such a beautiful thought! Enjoy.

When I dance, I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from life. I can only be joyful and whole; that is why I dance.

Hans Bos
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And we should consider
Every day lost
On which
We have not danced
At least once.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Above: Tom & Vickie performing at FirstNight Annapolis, 12/31/2006

Dancing's just a conversation between two people. Talk to me.

Hope Floats
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Your love for yourself is only shown when you are dancing freely.

Anonymous
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"The dance of life" is not so much a metaphor as a fact; to dance is to know oneself alone and to celebrate it.

Sherman Paul
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Boy, you have to honor the music more than your mother.

An anonymous tango instructor
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The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie.

Agnes de Mille
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A child sings before it speaks, dances almost before it walks; music is with us from the beginning.

Pamela Brown
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Often the only thing standing between a man and his dreams is the will to do what is necessary and the faith to believe it is possible.

R. DeVos
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Whether you think you can or you can't, you are right.

Henry Ford
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"Learning to walk sets you free. Learning to dance gives you the greatest freedom of all: to express with your whole self the person you are."

Melissa Hayden

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As much as the world has an instinct for evil and is a breeding ground for genocide, holocaust, slavery, racism, war, oppression, and injustice, the world has an even greateer instinct for goodness, rebirth, mercy, beauty, truth, freedom and love.

Desmond Tutu

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I praise the dance, for it frees people from the heaviness of matter and binds the isolated to community.
I praise the dance, which demands everything: health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul.
Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people, who are in constant danger of becoming all brain, will, or feeling.
Dancing demands a whole person, one who is firmly anchored in the center of his life, who is not obsessed by lust for people and things and the demon of isolation in his own ego.
Dancing demands a freed person, one who vibrates with the equipoise of all his powers.
I praise the dance.
O man, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven will not know what to do with you.
-Saint Augustine (A.D. 354 ... 430)

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"People think I'm disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion. There is a great difference."

Luciano Pavarotti

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"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others use your heart."
Eleanor Roosevelt
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"Everything in the universe has rhythm;
Everything dances."
Maya Angelou