Emily Dickinson provided four or more alternates for every word; Beethoven wrestled with endings to the point of exhaustion; in our day Jerome Robbins and his lack of decision are a byword in the dance profession.
AGNES DE MILLEBut remember that intent is everything. One does not just jump, one lifts into the air, one rises.
More Agnes de Mille Quotes
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We can’t stand silence, because silence induces thinking. And if we thought, we would have to face ourselves.
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I had had to learn the difference between the bearable fatigue and the unbearable, the fatigue of fear. The first can be cured by a night’s sleep; the second kills.
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I am completely absorbed by the music and the steps I choose to respond to the music.
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Theater people are always pining and agonizing because they’re afraid that they’ll be forgotten. And in America they’re quite right. They will be.
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But remember that intent is everything. One does not just jump, one lifts into the air, one rises.
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Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little.
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So that we will miss nothing. Partly it’s greed, but mainly its curiosity. We just want to experience it. And we do.
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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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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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I want one word on my tombstone – dancer.
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What have we got here in America that we believe we cannot live without?
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No white man uses his feet the way an Indian does. He talks to the earth.
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Dance constitutes a true recapturing of… freedom and childish play.
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One of the good things about my having some recognition is that I can do something for the people
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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.
AGNES DE MILLE