Choreographers Quotes

The number of e-mails and letters that I get from choreographers, from sculptors, from composers who are being inspired by science is huge. ~ Brian Greene

Dances without purpose have false starts and stops. ~ Hanya Holm

It is said that the Devil has all the best tunes.
This is broadly true. But Heaven has the best choreographers ~ Terry Pratchett

It's a difficult path that we tread, us Indie self-publishers, but we're not alone. How many bands practicing in their dad's garage have heard of a group from the neighbourhood who got signed by a recording company? Or how many artists who love to paint, but are not really getting anywhere with it hear of someone they went to art school with being offered an exhibition in a gallery? How many chefs who love to get creative around food hear of someone else who's just landed a job with Marco Pierre White?
There's no difference between us and them. There is, however, a huge difference in how everyone else perceives the writer. And there's a huge difference between all of us – the writers, the musicians, the composers, the chefs, the dance choreographers and to a certain extent the tradesmen - and the rest of society in that no one understands us. It's a wretched dream to hope that our creativity gets recognised while our family thinks we're wasting our time when the lawn needs mowing, the deck needs painting and the bedroom needs decorating.
It's acceptable to go into the garage to tinker about with a motorbike, but it's a waste of a good Sunday afternoon if you go into the garage and practice your guitar, or sit in your study attempting to capture words that have been floating around your brain forever. ~ Karl Wiggins

The one reason people don't take dance seriously is because a lot of choreographers don't take dance seriously. ~ Mark Morris

When preparing for a concert, I do lots of training. I work with a choreographer to create great moves and then I have to keep my voice strong with lessons. ~ Miley Cyrus

You had to give, uh, a lot of consideration to the fact that, uh, the artist had to come back into the mike area and start singing, especially the background singers, you know. And you had to make sure they had a couple of bars of music in order to catch their breath. And uh, in many cases a lot of choreographers didn't give that, uh, the proper thought. ~ Cholly Atkins

Strong and convincing art has never arisen from theories. ~ Mary Wigman

I think I just have this need to be a storyteller. That's why I wasn't a great dancer - I couldn't articulate a story. I was a better choreographer. I have the need to to just express myself in that way. I can't explain it. ~ Rosie Perez

Back from 'Roam if she wants to'!" yelled Renee. She had that condition unique to choreographers and directors, where they can listen to the same line or lyric thousands of times without ever getting it right. ~ Mara Wilson

What makes people and companies and artistic directors and choreographers interested in working with dancers is the ability to kind of let go of everything you think you know and be a blank canvas. ~ Misty Copeland

When I miss class for one day, I know it. When I miss class for two days, my teacher knows it. When I miss class for three days, the audience knows it. ~ Rudolf Nureyev

But he had never seen Myrna in practice...never that close up. He had been impressed and a little frightened by the contrast between seeing ballet on stange, where everyone seemed to either glide or mince effortlessly on the tips of their pointes. and seeing it from less than five feet away, with harsh daylight pouring in the floor-to-ceiling windows and no music- only the choreographer rythmically clapping his hands and yelling harsh criticisms. No praise, only criticisms. Their faces ran with sweat. Their leotards were wet with sweat. The room, as large and airy as it way, stank of sweat. Sleek muscles trembled and fluttered on the nervous edge of exhaustion. Corded tendons stood out like insulated cables. Throbbing veins popped out on foreheads and necks. Except for the choreographer's clapping and angry, hectoring shouts, the only sounds were the thrup-thud of ballet dancers on pointe moving across the floor and harsh, agonized panting for breath. Jack had suddenly realized that these dancers were not just earning a living, they were killing themselves. Most of all he remembered their expressions- all that exhausted concentration, all that pain... but transcending the pain, or at least creeping around its edges, he had seen joy. Joy was unmistakably what that look was, and it scared Jack because it had seemed inexplicable. ~ Stephen King

God creates, I do not create. I assemble and I steal everywhere to do it - from what I see, from what the dancers can do, from what others do. ~ George Balanchine

It's like a dance, to choreograph a fight is like a dance. It's very specific. You have to carefully plan it out. Because if someone gets hurt, then we didn't do our job, someone screwed up. The fight choreographers and the actors involved, we messed up somewhere. ~ Bryan Cranston

Animals cannot speak, but can you and I not speak for them and represent them? Let us all feel their silent cry of agony and let us all help that cry to be heard in the world. ~ Rukmini Devi Arundale

It's easier for me to go to Russia and train with top coaches and choreographers there than go to Colorado Springs and train with 14 of my competitors. ~ Johnny Weir

I dance not to entertain but to help people better understand each other. Because through dance I have experienced the wordless joy of freedom, I seek it more fully now for my people and for all people everywhere. ~ Pearl Primus

We learnt a lot because we got in with real choreographers who tell you what they need from a song, because a song has to advance the story. Then real directors like Mike Nichols tell you where you can have 'B themes' and 'C themes', and we go oh yes, B themes and C themes! So we were taught in the finest school amongst the finest people. And also by the school of experience. ~ Eric Idle

A painter is a choreographer of space. ~ Barnett Newman

Wayne McGregor's 'Dyad 1929' is a good example of this capable British choreographer's work. ~ Robert Gottlieb

Every film, every fight choreographer, wants to have a different flair, have a different fight technique. So any film I've done that involved weapons has always been fascinating because everyone is different. ~ Luke Evans

I'm not interested in fame and glory. It's just that I would like others to know what a happy dance this is. ~ Frankie Manning

I collaborated on most of my dance numbers, literally 50/50, with the choreographers I worked with. ~ Jessie Matthews

Our arms start from the back because they were once wings. ~ Martha Graham

The real self of an artiste lies in art, so when an artiste performs, all the pain, trauma and tension get released through art, be it dancing, painting, singing, writing or even martial arts. ~ Mrinalini Sarabhai

What guarantees - or at least semi-guarantees - good ballets is good choreographers, and they are thin on the ground. ~ Robert Gottlieb

When we did concerts, we wanted them to be theatrical events - collaborations with designers, choreographers, and directors - because we thought traditional rock concerts were boring. ~ Neil Tennant

Afro-Caribbean influences are in me as a creative being the same way Spanish influences were in Picasso's work. I think the notion of labels - "black dancer, black choreographer" -is a ploy to divide and conquer, and to limit. ~ Garth Fagan

Dance in the most perishable of the arts. Ballets are forgotten, ballerinas retire, choreographers die
and what remains of that glorious production which so excited us a decade ago, a year ago, or even last night? ~ Jack Anderson

You cannot dance physically certain things. But look at tango dancers or flamenco or Japanese classical theater. You can, if you're smart enough and you collaborate with the right choreographers, you could really dance your age. ~ Mikhail Baryshnikov

The choreographer cannot deliberately make a ballet to appeal to an audience, he has to start from personal inspirations. He has to trust the ballet, to let it stand on its own strengths or fall on its weaknesses. If it reaches the audience, then he is lucky that round! ~ Gerald Arpino

Choreographers, historically, are born, not made - their talents drive them to it. ~ Robert Gottlieb

Choreographers use me as the old guy who still dances. Not that I put on white tights. ~ Mikhail Baryshnikov

The mystery of Christopher Wheeldon deepens. Yes, he's the most talented of the younger ballet choreographers - indeed, where's the competition? Yes, he's particularly good at nurturing dancers and identifying their essential qualities. ~ Robert Gottlieb

A director is a choreographer, both politically and creatively. ~ William Shatner

Kun-Yang Lin is a young Taiwanese choreographer with strong American modern dance roots. (His) New York debut at the Cunningham studio were notable for their craft and sturdy spirituality. ~ Jennifer Dunning

All writers, musicians, artists, choreographers/dancers, etc., work with the stuff of their experiences. It's the translation of it, the conversion of it, the shaping of it that makes for the drama. ~ Toni Cade Bambara

I have the most respect for Zach Woodlee. He is one of my favorite - and one of the most capable - choreographers out there right now. ~ Harry Shum, Jr.

I get into the studio and I try to make visible what's in the choreographer's mind. Sometimes a choreographer wants you to have an idea, and sometimes you are the idea. ~ Angel Corella

One of the eternal mysteries of ballet is how untalented choreographers find backers for their work, and then find good dancers to perform in it. Is it irresistible charm? Chutzpah? Pure determination? Blackmail? Or are so many supposedly knowledgeable people just plain blind? ~ Robert Gottlieb

For most of human history, we could only watch, like bystanders, the beautiful dance of Nature. But today, we are on the cusp of an epoch-making transition, from being passive observers of Nature to being active choreographers of Nature. The Age of Discovery in science is coming to a close, opening up an Age of Mastery. ~ Michio Kaku

A dancer should learn from all the arts. Go to museums and look at the paintings. See how they balance things. Everything you do in the arts enriches you. ~ Alicia Alonso

We are just at the studio, me and my choreographers, we are spending like 30 nights and we are thinking, what is my next dance move? Because in Korea there are huge expectations about my dancing. So it was a lot of pressure. ~ Psy

Shakespeare has always been up for grabs, and choreographers have every right to use him any way they choose. ~ Robert Gottlieb

Mia Michaels is to my mind one of the most interesting choreographers alive right now and my colleague and my friend from So You Think (You Can Dance). ~ Adam Shankman

From my experience as an actor, choreographer, action director, and producer, I understand the elements and the dynamics of being a film maker. ~ Donnie Yen

Collaborations work when both or however many parties are the right people to be working together for whatever reason - whether it's two musicians or a musician and a filmmaker or a musician and a choreographer, if the combination is right, the possibility exists to make something greater than the individuals could make. But if the combination is wrong than you generally end up with a compromised piece is probably less than the individuals could make. ~ John Parish

There are as many types of Butoh as there are Butoh choreographers. ~ Tatsumi Hijikata

The way Alvin Ailey has transformed modern dance and dance in general is the fact of variety. It's a cornucopia of ways to move. There are choreographers in the company as - as diverse, as different from each other as Donald McKayle and Bill T. Jones, or Jawole Zollar and John Butler, Lar Lubovitch, you know, and Judith Jamison. ~ Judith Jamison