Dance Student Quotes

Student quotes for class and practice -
how to get the most out of your dance training!

 “When you stumble make it part of the dance.”

- Author Unknown

“Nothing happens in the body

without happening in the brain first...

dancing is 95% mental.”

- Bobby Boling, A Dancer's Manual

“It is not so much upon the number of exercises,

as the care with which they are done,

that progress and skill depend.”

- August Bournonville

“Movement without meaning is just exercise.”

- Marie Brooks

“It's not magic! It's physics.

The speed of the turn is what keeps you upright.”

- Deborah Bull

“So if the dance is five minutes long,

make yourself run for perhaps eight minutes.

That way, you over-train and the dance will seem easier...”

- Deborah Bull

“You can't reduce lactic acid,

but you can increase your tolerance to it.

I do this through running or cycling, but it's a good idea

to match your training bout to the type of dance you do.”

- Deborah Bull

“You're not here by mistake. Someone at your audition

watched you dance and saw something special.

All you've gotta do is figure out how to find that again.”

- Center Stage

“The only way to do it is to do it.”

- Merce Cunningham

“Enjoy the process of learning to dance.

The process of our profession,

and not its final achievement,

is the heart and soul of dance.”

- Jacques d'Amboise

“Many other women have kicked higher, balanced longer,

or turned faster. These are poor substitutes for passion.”

- Agnes de Mille

“The practice mirror is to be used

for the correction of faults,

not for a love affair,

and the figure you watch

should not become your dearest friend.”

- Agnes de Mille

“When you fall, try it again... everyone falls the first time!”

- Dave Dodson

“If you dance, you dance because you have to.

Every dancer hurts, you know.”

- Katherine Dunham

“There are three steps you have to complete

to become a professional dancer: learn to dance, learn to perform

and learn how to cope with injuries.”

- D. Gere

“It takes ten years, usually, to make a dancer.

It takes ten years of handling the instrument,

handling the material with which you are dealing,

for you to know it completely.”

- Martha Graham

“Learn by practice.”

- Martha Graham

“Practice means to perform, over and over again

in the face of all obstacles,

some act of vision, of faith, of desire.

Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.”

- Martha Graham

“The next time you look into the mirror,

just look at the way the ears rest next to the head;

look at the way the hairline grows;

think of all the little bones in your wrist.

It is a miracle.

And the dance is a celebration of that miracle.”

- Martha Graham

“The spine is the tree of life. Respect it.”

- Martha Graham

“Think of the magic of that foot

upon which your whole weight rests.

It’s a miracle and the dance

is a celebration of that miracle.”

- Martha Graham

“To learn to dance by practicing dancing

or to learn to live by practicing living,

the principles are the same.”

- Martha Graham

“Technical perfection is insufficient.

It is an orphan without the true soul of the dancer.”

- Sylvie Guillem

“The more you understand the music,

the easier you can dance.”

- Orlando Gutinez

“So many dancers rely on some sort of magic

happening on the stage.

They never, for various reasons, work full out in rehearsal.

That’s very uncreative.

They don’t discover the kinds of things that add up to

a remarkable performance.”

- Benjamin Harkarvy

“Dance is bigger than the physical body.

Think bigger than that.

When you extend your arm,

it doesn't stop at the end of your fingers,

because you're dancing bigger than that:

you're dancing spirit.”

- Judith Jamison

“Every teacher will tell you that you cannot dance

classical technique with perfection,

there is no such thing, there is no way.

So you have to adapt the technique

to your abilities or to your deficiencies.

Learn to cheat!”

- Jiří Kylián

“Technique – bodily control – must be mastered

only because the body must not stand in the way

of the soul's expression.”

- La Meri

“Ballet class is like Life Lessons 101.

You learn some of life's most important lessons here

that you will carry with you forever.”

- Joanne H. Morscher

“Master technique

and then forget about it and be natural.”

- Anna Pavlova

“No one can arrive from being talented alone.

God gives talent; work transforms talent into genius.”

- Anna Pavlova

“Either you do the pirouette or you shoot yourself.

One or the other, but something must happen.”

- Monet Robier

“Everyday there must be something I can't do,

otherwise it's boring.”

- Monet Robier

“It's the easiest things that cause the most problems.”

- Monet Robier

“Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion.

You must set yourself on fire.”

- Fred Sero

“Be responsible, a good communicator, a good team player,

while pursuing individual dreams,

 and understanding the pitfalls

of being a perfectionist – a common characteristic

among ballet staff and students around the world.”

- Mavis Staines

“You have to believe there's something at the other side.

And you have to have faith in yourself.

You have to think that you have the tools to accomplish it.”

- Twyla Tharp

“Though talent is wonderful,

dance is 80% work and 20% talent.”

- Tad Williams

“Discipline is the mother of the art.

Discipline is not militaristic; the dancer must be relaxed.”

- Maestro Hector Zaraspe

“Dancers keep looking for the perfect teacher

without realizing that it's all there within themselves.

You teach yourself; your teacher is a guide.

If you do not hear the advice,

corrections and words of your guide,

it makes no difference how great the teacher.

You will never dance.”

- Author Unknown

“Even the greatest dancers in the world must submit

throughout their careers to the continual corrections

of daily class.”

- Author Unknown

“You will only get out of a dance class what you bring to it.

Learn by practice.”

- Martha Graham

"First comes the sweat.

Then comes the beauty if you're very lucky and have said your prayers."

- George Balanchine