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.
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
“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
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
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
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.”
"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"