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 MILLEWho am I?, the artist asks. And he devotes his whole life to finding out.
More Agnes de Mille Quotes
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The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate.
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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.
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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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Modern dancers give a sinister portent about our times. The dancers don’t even look at one another.
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We have the most varied and imaginative bathrooms in the world, we have kitchens with the most gimmicks, we have houses with every possible electrical gadget to save ourselves all kinds of trouble – all so that we can have leisure. Leisure, leisure, leisure!
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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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No white man uses his feet the way an Indian does. He talks to the earth.
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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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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.
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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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Many other women have kicked higher, balanced longer, or turned faster. These are poor substitutes for passion.
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There is something fearfully strengthening about cutting free even if the ties bandage the heart itself.
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Dance in the body you have.
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Who am I?, the artist asks. And he devotes his whole life to finding out.
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Destiny is made known silently.
AGNES DE MILLE