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" I wasn't into tapping when it began dying down. Ever since I started, it's been alive for me. I just want to keep on dancing. I want to do it all. "

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" Every performance is different because I'm different; my mood is different. "

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

" Whether it is Jimmy Slyde or Lon Chaney or Gregory Hines, their dance shows what they experienced, what they had to go through. "

" 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. "

" There's a tendency to think tap's had its day, but 'Happy Feet' kept us in the race. That penguin is our Shirley Temple. "

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

" I see myself helping the next generation of dancers who come along, helping them to keep the dance focused, so we don't get into a position where they're saying in 2050, or whatever, that around 2001 or 2002 or something the dance died. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" I dance anywhere. I just start moving my feet. "

" I grew up watching Gregory Hines banging out rhythms like drum beats, and Jimmy Slyde dancing these melodies, you know, bop-bah-be-do-bap, not just tap-tap-tap. Everyone else was dancing in monotone, but I could hear the hoofers in stereo, and they influenced me to have this musical approach towards tap. "

" 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. "

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

" I want to share what I have, and I'd rather share it with people that are a little bit more open-minded. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I'm just blessed, man. I'm just happy to share my art form with everyone. That's cool. "

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

" 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 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 can hold a note, but that's about it. "

" Tap dancing is like... it's equivalent to music, not only for the African American community, but also for the world. Tap dancing is like language; it's like air: it's like everything else that we need in order to survive. I'm blessed and honored to be knowledgeable of the art form and to be a part of the art form. "

" 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. "

" I've come to realize that people dance for reasons of their own. "

" 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. "

" 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. "