The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
AGNES DE MILLE
If you want to understand a nation, look at its dances and listen to its folk songs – don’t pay any attention to its politicians.
More Agnes de Mille Quotes
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Dancing is such a despised and dishonored trade that if you tell a doctor or a laywer you do choreography he’ll look at you as if you were a hummingbird.
AGNES DE MILLE -
In the same way the lifted leg of an arabesque becomes a wing, and not a mechanical leverage like a raised trap door.
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The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate.
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They are just a lot of isolated individuals jiggling in a kind of self-hypnosis and dancing with others only to remind themselves that we are not completely alone in this world.
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Dancers don’t get invited to visit people. It is assumed a boy dancer will run off with the spoons and a girl with the head of the house.
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But all of these knew very well what they did not want, and what they did not want was the current coin, the well-worn usage.
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Many other women have kicked higher, balanced longer, or turned faster. These are poor substitutes for passion.
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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 -
Dance in the body you have.
AGNES DE MILLE -
The universe lies before you on the floor, in the air, in the mysterious bodies of your dancers, in your mind.
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great artists can be uncertain. Of course they are while strugggling to find solutions.
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Then I did the simplest thing in the world. I leaned down… and kissed him. And the world cracked open.
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One of the good things about my having some recognition is that I can do something for the people
AGNES DE MILLE -
Dancers aren’t made of their technique, but their passion.
AGNES DE MILLE -
My heroines are part of me and my heroes are part of what I’d like to know.
AGNES DE MILLE