Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

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

Characteristics

Related Quotes:

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

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

" The spirituality of the dance, that's something that's evolved for me in the past ten years or so. I'm still trying to figure out where that's taking me. "

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

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

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

" I'm always inspired by music, things of that nature. Just life in general. I'm happy to be waking up and having another chance at it. "

" The Nicholas Brothers were the best tap-dancers. I'm not talking about their flash-dancing, I'm talking about tap-dancing. They were really saying something with their feet. "

" I don't like being too serious. I'm the type of person that, if the mike isn't in the right place when I go on, I just move it. Other people, they'll be all frantic. I'm more relaxed. "

" I did a production called 'Classical Savion,' where I did some Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Bach, Vivaldi, and all these great pieces. "

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

" Authenticity is the most important thing. You have to know where it all comes from, study who pioneered it. "

" I search for different tonalities in my taps. But my greatest pleasure is hearing a note I haven't heard before, hearing a chord that sparks something new. "

" I'm still growing, still learning. I'm still open and vulnerable enough to know there's much more to be taught to me and learned by me. I hope I don't reach my pinnacle on this earth where I think I know it all. "

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

" I've changed my whole angle for dance. I'm moving towards moving back rather than hanging out with my peers. I'm reaching back to older dudes for a second. "

" 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. "

" When you find real jazz on the radio dial, it comes in all static-y. It's just like tap dancers. You have to go uptown to find the real hoofers. We only come to midtown if we're called upon. "

" I feel it's my duty, my job, now to allow people to hear the dance to different genres of music, to ensure audiences have the chance to listen to tap dancing up against all these other styles. "

" 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'm inspired by breath, by the human body - by so many things. "

" Just like a comedian has a certain joke or a jazz musician has a riff that they know will get the crowd, a tap dancer always has a step. "

" 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. "

" There are many different styles of, and approaches to, tap. My own leans towards a more intellectual view: tap dancing not just for the sake of entertainment but to educate and spark emotion. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Movie making is such a long process, and they only use that one take, although you do it over and over about 30 times. Live theatre is that one time and one time only. "

" If someone wants to be very tight about authenticity or ownership, it just sounds kind of competitive to me. "