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" A tapper sticks to existing routines. Whereas hoofing... a hoofer pushes the art form. "

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" Great athletes last because they let the mental do all the work. What we do as hoofers is not so much a physical strain as everybody thinks. It's more of a mental stretch. "

" It wasn't until I did a musical revue in Paris in the 1980s called 'Black and Blue,' and met the great men and women responsible for the progress of tap dance, that my relationship with the dance really began. "

" I'm more a percussion instrument than a dancer. "

" Whatever you do, just learn about what you're doing; get into it. "

" I actually wanted to be a fireman when I was younger. "

" There's no dancer alive better than those of the 1950s and 1960s. It's only the energy that changes. Every now and then, someone like me comes along, and people say, 'Oh, this guy is this new thing.' But that's not so. There is no me without them. The tradition just goes on. "

" I realized early on, I'm more interested in Baryshnikov than some dancer who wants to do a rock show with ballet. "

" Tap is still the central driving force of my life. I think and talk in dance. "

" The youth coming up is interested in dance now, and they're coming to the shows. That's a blessing for those of us who create. "

" It's as if my left heel is my bass drum and my right heel is the floor tom-tom. I can get snare out of my right toe by not putting it down on the floor hard, and, if I want cymbals, I land flat on both feet, full strength on the floor. "

" Tap's foundation is jazz, just like hip-hop, so relating tap-dancing to rap is natural for me. "

" There's a whole new generation who know about tap dancing thanks to 'Happy Feet.' "

" I was very happy with the success of 'Noise/Funk,' but of course, there is a lot more that I have to say about the dance, about the history, about the people involved with the dance and their history. "

" I'm happy that people think of me as the greatest tap-dancer that ever lived. But it's just a rumor. Because the greatest dancer that ever lived knows everything, and I don't. I'm still learning. I still have a lot of work to do. "

" My mom always had me and my brother watching old Fred Astaire movies. "

" My show mode is that the dressing room is like going into the cockpit. Going down the stairs is like going on the runway, and once we begin performing, it's flight time. I'm just floatin' on that stage. "

" I never really stop and think about should I put my hat on this way or that, not thinking that little JoJo down the street would be copying that. I'm more conscious about it now and tell the kids that it's not about the shoes or what kind of shoes... it's all about the dance. "

" We need these figures who don't exactly go against the grain but create a new grain. "

" When you think about John Coltrane, in my opinion - and I think I share this opinion with a lot of people - his approach to music changed other people's approach to music. "

" I've never looked at what I do as show business, I guess, because of my connection to the art and how I was introduced to the dance. "

" I used to think I had this responsibility to carry on this tradition. Now I just feel like I have to keep the dance out there, keep it in the public eye. "

" I was always looking at footage of dancers from Nicholas Brothers to Ralph Brown to Sand Man to Miller Brothers and Lois, and I grew up looking at old footage. "

" I try new stuff every time I perform. I have steps I do that I know are definite, and stuff I can make up right then and there and then forget. "

" I was a drummer in a group called Three Plus. We were performing at a club in New York, and my mother signed me up for tap classes. I fell in love from the door... so you can blame it on my mother. "

" I used to think I could save tap. But tap was here way before I was, and it's going to be here after I'm gone. "

" They all come from the street - tap, jazz and flamenco. And the streets are always changing. If it comes from the streets, change is the only thing that's consistent. "

" What does genius mean? God has put us here specifically... every person has a job or journey to do. It's just a matter of finding what we're here to fulfill or execute. That's genius to me. "

" What we're looking for at my school is intellectuals. People who want to talk about the art and be knowledgeable about it. People who want to know the history. Not everybody needs to be performing. "

" The connection of what I do to flamenco lies in the whole lament, whole cry, whole pouring back into the earth and giving energy back to the earth. It's a cry and a celebration. That's what music, sound, vibration should do. It should spark energy in someone. "

" You can go to see a singer and love the show, but you don't need to know all the songs. What you want to do when you leave is go and find out more about the music. "