Dance Quotes

[Salome]

Thought it would be pleasant to do a thread of dance quotes. Feel free to add your favorites.

“And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon.”

Edward Lear, The owl and the pussycat

 

[Shanazel]

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

"Sometimes we can't choose the music life gives us but we can damn sure choose how we dance." Anonymous

 

[Safran]

" When we move our bodies, fantastic things happen!"

Peter Lovatt, dance psychologist

The quote is so simple, but he's got scientific proof behind it! Check out his speeches on youtube, there is even one featuring a fusion dancer

 

[Salome]

"To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking."

Agnes de Mille

 

[Amulya]

Excellent idea the dance quotes, unfortunately I can't remember any ATM, will post when I find one

ETA, I remember this page with quotes: http://www.joyofbellydancing.com/danquote2.html

 

[Shanazel]

Western Sociologist: “You know, I have now been to a number of these Shinto shrines and I have
seen quite a few rites, and I have read about it, thought about it; but you
know, I don’t get the ideology. I don’t get your theology.”

Shinto priest:“We do not have ideology. We do not have theology. We dance.”



"The Deadheads are doing the dance of life and this I would say is the answer to the atom bomb." Joseph Campbell's comment after attending a 1985 Grateful Dead concert.

 

[Mosaic]

Temoot el raqqasa we westaha beyel3ab. - "When a belly dancer dies, her hips are still moving." - Egyptian proverb ( Can't remember where I read this - actually could have been here)

How many Belly Dancers does it take to change a lightbulb? One. She holds it up and the world revolves around her! ...

my all time favourite:

"The philosopher's soul dwells in his head,
the poet's soul is in his heart,
the singer's soul lingers about his throat,
but the soul of the dancer abides in all her body."
Kahlil Gibran
~Mosaic

 

[Mosaic]

"The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie."
~Agnes de Mille

This one was on Bhuz 2 to 3 years ago, some of you will know of Ozma, I loved it so kept the quote

Belly Dance, like the desert sand, finds its way into everything ~ Ozma (Japan)
~M

 

[Salome]

“I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God. 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

 

[Roshanna]

If you wake up in the morning
Empty and scared
Don’t go to the study and read
Pick up a musical instrument and play.
Let the beauty we love, be what we do
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
- Rumi

 

[Duvet]

Never underestimate the healing power of listening to your favourite music on full blast while dancing around the house like an idiot.
unknown

Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.
Coco Chanel

 

[Duvet]

Philosophers have argued for centuries about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but materialists have always known it depends on whether they are jitterbugging or dancing cheek to cheek.
Tom Robbins

I always thought the saddest feeling in life is when you're dancing in a really joyful way and then you hit your head on something.
Lena Dunham

 

[shiradotnet]

My favorite:

"Some people march to the beat of a different drum. Others polka."

In searching for the source of the quote, it seems to have come from the Los Angeles Times. Can someone else identify a different source?

 

[Duvet]

"Some people march to the beat of a different drum. Others polka."

So far the earliest I can find is in the "Readers Digest Quotable Quotes" of 1997, "Some people march to a different drummer - and some people polka" attributed to the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

I found your exact phrasing in a 1995 source, but attributed to 'anon'.
Over the years there have been a number of variations. I think my favourite would be;

"Some people march to the beat of a different drummer. I am that different drummer.”

 

[Ariadne]

"I want it distinctly understood, that fiddling and dancing are no part of our worship. The question may be asked, What are they for, then? I answer, that my body may keep pace with my mind. My mind labors like a man logging, all the time; and this is the reason why I am fond of these pastimes—they give me a privilege to throw everything off, and shake myself, that my body may exercise, and my mind rest. What for? To get strength, and be renewed and quickened, and enlivened, and animated, so that my mind may not wear out (DBY, 242"

- Brigham Young

 

[Dani]

"Dance is a way to lose yourself and find yourself, all at the same time."

"Sometimes I hurt because I dance. Other times I dance because I'm hurt. Either way, dance fixes it all."

My two favorites. <3

 

[Duvet]

Are we human? or are we dancer?
The Killers (2009)