The truest expression of a people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie.
AGNES DE MILLEOne of the good things about my having some recognition is that I can do something for the people
More Agnes de Mille Quotes
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When I dance I am really meditating rather then performing for an audience.
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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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The choreographic process is exhausting. It happens on one’s feet after hours of work, and the energy required is roughly the equivalent of writing a novel and winning a tennis match simultaneously.
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The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate.
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This is the precise difference between dancing and acrobatics. The dancer tries to express something; the acrobat merely pulls, raises, stretches and grinds.
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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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Tolstoi’s scripts are almost indecipherable.
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A good education is usually harmful to a dancer. A good calf is better than a good head.
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Find the passion. It takes great passion and great energy to do anything creative. I would go so far as to say you can’t do it without that passion.
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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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My heroines are part of me and my heroes are part of what I’d like to know.
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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.
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No white man uses his feet the way an Indian does. He talks to the earth.
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great artists can be uncertain. Of course they are while strugggling to find solutions.
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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