Silver Barkes
State Street Ballet
State Street Ballet
On stage, I am my truest self—the person I want to reveal and project out into the universe.
Leila Drake Fossek
State Street Ballet
Lu Wang
State Street Ballet
What my dancers and I try to do is talk about real life. I want to move people and inspire them to feel good about themselves. I want them to have the desire to have their spirits set free.
Ronald K. Brown
Evidence, A Dance Company
Evidence, A Dance Company
I have been a part of the history of Mexican dance in California for almost forty years. I have gone from social activist to dancer, to dance teacher, to dance artist, to choreographer. I don’t really know where one role ends and the others begin. Maybe all of them are very much still in me.
Gema Sandoval
Founder and Artistic Director, Danza Floricanto
Once I felt the heat in my body, I could do anything. I felt such passion for the dance. I even performed when I was sick with fever because I felt the dance would heal me.
José Greco
Before every performance I feel a huge emotional weight—the weight of my life. But once I begin to move, the weight lightens and lifts away.
Carmela Greco
You usually don’t know how your dancing affects people. But when someone comes up to you after a performance with tears in their eyes and says, “You touched my spirit, you touched my soul,” that’s when you know you’ve made a difference.
Matthew Rushing
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Nature is not a backdrop to life but a dynamic influence. When applied to movement it leads to awareness, creativity, and regeneration.
Anna Halprin
To me, the highest compliment I could ever receive is to be called a dancer. A dancer is someone who is God-like.
Judith Jamison
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
I do exactly what I want and try not to lie too much.
Mark Morris
Mark Morris Dance Group
We have to know this body we’re in. We might think of it as a shell. You fill that shell in a way no one else can.
Katherine Dunham
The artist should do what he feels he must and be as free as he dares to be.
Bill T. Jones
It doesn’t matter how many pirouettes you own and how pretty you are. Usually the ones who get the role are the ones who do their homework, put their heart and soul into it, and want to serve.
Ann Reinking
People often believe that it’s angst and torment that inspires creative work, but for me it’s love. Love is the most powerful source from which all creativity grows.
Tommy Tune
Dancers will do anything they’re asked. Dancers are our artistic soldiers.
Shirley MacLaine
All I’ve ever wanted was to touch that one person out there in the dark.
Chita Rivera
I was humbled by the power of dance and scared to death of it at the same time. For me it was life or death—everything or nothing!
Paula Kelly
Bob Fosse showed me how to get