“The dance is a poem of which each movement is a world”

– Mata Hari

“This is who I am, not just what I do.

And I say – long live jazz dance.”

Gus Giordano

“Dance when you’re broken open.

Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.

Dance, in the middle of the fighting.

Dance, in your blood.

Dance, when you’re perfectly free.”

– Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi

“I don’t want people who want to dance,

I want people who have to dance. “

– George Balanchine

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.”

– Martha Graham

“Then come the lights shining on you from above.

You are a performer.

You forget all you learned,

the process of technique,

the fear, the pain,

you even forget who you are,

you become one with the music, the lights,

indeed one with the dance.”

– Shirley MacLaine

Dance

Dance

Feel the sensation

As your feet touch the ground

Feel your body

As it moves with the sound

Dance

Spinning in ecstasy

Gliding across the floor

Feeling the rhythm and beat

Pulsating through you more and more

Dance

As it all becomes one

We begin to see

There is no you

There is no me

There is no music

There is just

Dance

– Savannah Skye

(With permission)

Dance Your Essence

Dance to see yourself

Dance to free yourself

Dance to be yourself

Dance your essence…

Dance your essence

Within your presence

Spin and twirl

Into a spiraling whirl

Dance your essence

Back into your presence

Around you spin

Back to life’s begin

Dance your essence

Beyond your presence

Close your eyes

As your body sighs

Dance your essence

Away from your presence

Free your being

With your 3rd eye seeing

Dance your essence

Outside your presence

Let yourself transcend

Beyond your mind’s end

Dance your essence

Into your presence

Trance to be one

With the whole of the sum

Dance your essence…

– Savannah Skye

(With permission)

Dance of Life 

My dance is of earth

Pounding the beat

The rhythmic throbbing of my heart

As my callused feet

Tap on the ground

My dance is of fire

The flame in my soul

Brings a gleam in my eye

As my untiring body

Soars through the inferno

My dance is of water

The flood plain of my brain

This liquid beauty is my twin

I am fluid and free

My movement a devastating typhoon

My dance is of dark

My shadow, my soul mate

It swoops down like an eagle

And steals the sun

The darkness sets me free as I fly for the moon

My dance is of light

The brightest day

Warms my coldest night

As I sing for the sun

And glide through the clouds

My dance is of life

– Artemis Taylor

(With permission)

“We dance for laughter,

we dance for tears,

we dance for madness,

we dance for fears,

we dance for hopes,

we dance for screams,

we are the dancers,

we create the dreams.”

 – Anonymous

“The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing… there are times when the simple dignity of movement can fulfill the function of a volume of words.

There are movements which impinge upon the nerves with a strength that is incomparable, for movement has power to stir the senses and emotions, unique in itself.

This is the dancer’s justification for being, and his reason for searching further for deeper aspects of his art.”

– Doris Humphrey

“Artists lead unglamorous daily lives of discipline and routine,

but their work is full of passion.

Each has a vision and feels responsibility to that vision.”

– Merryl Brockway

Dancers work and live from the inside.

They drive themselves constantly producing a glow that lights not only themselves but audience after audience.”

– M. Louis

“Jazz, itself is a feeling, an honest, personal feeling, inspired by soulful music. The source of jazz is inside. Jazz cannot be found in a pose, or a leap, or a bump, or a grind. It’s not a series of ‘jazz steps’. Jazz must be an honest expression of a musical soul. Jazz dance is moving with that feeling through a safe and effective technique. Never force an extension or back arch. Nothing should hurt. Technique is like tuning an instrument; learn to tune your body just right, so that when you go to play it, it’s beautiful. Never stop moving. Even when you are standing still, feel the movement inside.” 

-Luigi

“Dance is your pulse,

your heartbeat,

your breathing.

It’s the rhythm of your life.

It’s the expression in time and movement,

in happiness, joy, sadness and envy.”

– Jaques D’Ambroise

“Dance is the only art of which

we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made. ”

– Ted Shawn

“Dance is music made visible. ”

– George Balanchine

“Jazz dance is interpreting music. It’s my obligation to the musician to express what he feels when he’s playing. It all boils down to the relationship of the movement to the music.”

– Frank Hatchet

“Those who hear not the music

think the dancers mad.”

– Chinese Proverb

“I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what is too deep to find for words. ”

– Ruth St. Denis

“There was a star (that) danced,

and under that was I born.”

– William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing

“I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.”

– Mikhail Baryshnikov

“No, I can’t explain the dance to you;

if I could tell you what it meant,

there would be no point in dancing it.”

– Isadora Duncan