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" I deal with more complex rhythmical patterns than a regular tap dancer. I even think in rhythms. "

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" 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. "

" The sound of tap is not 'clickety clickety tap tap,' this monotone thing. The sound of tap has depth. We want you to hear the different highs and lows, the bass, the trebles and the melodies, if you can. "

" Frank Sinatra changed people's approach to singing. Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, van Gogh, they were all part of movements that allowed people to think about their craft differently. They changed the game. These people changed the game. "

" I like to be around dancers who are totally committed to the art form, totally committed to the men and women around them. "

" My mom couldn't afford dance shoes, so she put me in these old cowboy boots with a hard bottom so I could get some sound out. I used them for seven months. When I finally got real tap shoes, I was nervous. I kept moving my feet, thinking, 'Oh, so this is how it's supposed to sound.' "

" Other dances are like languages, like French or Spanish, but my steps are slang, and slang is always changing. "

" 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. "

" 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 go for a nice walk in my neighborhood and search for vinyl, old jazz, classics. Then I go home and listen to them. "

" I don't really care what the visual is looking like. I've gotten away from - not shenanigans, but spectacle. "

" I started as a drummer. The feet are an extension of that. "

" 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. "

" When Puffy asked me to do the video, I said yes. Cuz it's all about the Benjamins! "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" They're taking away the arts programmes in the schools, and that's a terrible thing. "

" 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. "

" There are people who take tap class, do a tap dance. And then there are people who know the dance, who know why they take tap classes. Who know why they do 20 shuffles, or 50 shuffles, before they go on. "

" I want tap to be something danced in arenas. Sort of like a rock group. Other art forms happen every night. Take theater, opera; there's always opera happening every night. "

" Jimmy Slyde was more a musician than a dancer; Greg Hines was more musician than dancer. "

" I was first introduced to dancing through the TV: I remember watching ballet, jazz and ballroom dancing when I was very little. But I felt no connection with it whatsoever: it was just like watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon. "

" 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. "

" For me, the importance in learning about the dance is using it as a voice. It's not about a step, it's about a way to express oneself. "

" When I'm on TV or whatever, I'm able to bring my instruments, my board, and my sound is intact. But other kids who are on TV, when they're doing tap, sometimes they're just on the regular floor. It's not as safe; it's not as sound-worthy as it should be. "

" I can produce any instrument, any sound that I can imagine; it may be percussive to the audience, but in my mind it may be a piano, a melody, or a tuba, or a harp, or a harmonica. My mission is to allow people to hear the dance in its purity and up against any other type of sound or music. "

" I wake up, and I'm in the zone... My performance is the continuation of my life. "

" I want to entertain, but I'm interested in a whole range of feelings. "

" 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. "

" When I wake up in the morning, I just go. "

" I don't deal in terminology, I deal with expressions: colors, shapes, tones, characteristics. "

Characteristics