Quotes & Sayings About Dance Technique

We have come to consider the word technique applicable only to movements that are so showy as to approach acrobatics ... — La Meri

Ballet technique never becomes easy, it becomes possible — Agnes De Mille

Knowledge passes from dance teacher into the student through the process of mane, which is often translated as imitation, but learning to dance is more a process of total identification than of simple copying. We repeat the movements of our teachers until we can duplicate them exactly, until, in a sense, we have absorbed the teacher's mastery into ourselves. Artistic technique must be fully integrated into the cells of our bodies if we are to use it to express what is in our hearts, and this takes many years of practice. — Mineko Iwasaki

When the correct technique feels wrong, different and confusing there is change and grow — Jeff Allen

It is through strength of technique that the body stays in possession of music. — Arlene Croce

Every teacher will tell you that you cannot dance classical technique with perfection, there is no such thing, there is no way. So you have to adapt the technique to your abilities or to your deficiencies. Learn to cheat! — Jiri Kylian

Freedom to a dancer means discipline. That is what technique is for
liberation. — Martha Graham

Then come the lights shining on you from above. You are a performer. You forget all you learned, the process of technique, the fear, the pain, you even forget who you are you become one with the music, the lights, indeed one with the dance. — Shirley Maclaine

To understand what I am saying, you have to believe that dance is something other than technique. We forget where the movements come from. They are born from life. When you create a new work, the point of departure must be contemporary life
not existing forms of dance. — Pina Bausch

Classical virtuosity is more than technique, line, proportion, and balance. It is as if the performer and spectator come together to hold in their hands a bird with a broken wing. The creature can be felt to stir, to struggle for freedom. Its life responds to human warmth; its wing might brush your check as it flies away. — Gelsey Kirkland

That was my challenge then, how to make scratching still fun for someone who didn't necessarily come to hear that. It was fun to develop that technique. And now in dance music - I'm still a hip-hop guy at heart, but I love dance music. — A-Trak

I never set out to create a technique. I started out on the floor to find myself, to find what the body could do, and what would give me satisfaction - emotionally, dramatically and bodily. But I did not ever dream of establishing a technique. I still can't believe anything like that happened. — Martha Graham

I am sincerely trying now to create a dance technique based entirely upon corrective exercises, created with a knowledge of human anatomy; a technique which will correct physical faults and prepare a dancer for any type of dancing he may wish to follow; a technique having all the basic movements which govern the actions of the body; combined with a knowledge of the origin of movement and a sense of artistic design. — Lester Horton

So when the devil wants to dance with you, you better say never,
Because the dance with the devil might last you forever. — Immortal Technique

Ballet is not technique but a way of expression that comes more closely to the inner language of man than any other. — George Sava

Although most informed balletomanes would place artistry above technique, artistry without a strong technique is a flaccid, bloodless thing indeed, whereas technique without much artistry can still dazzle us in the manner of the circus or sports arena translated to a higher plane. Though the perfect blend of the two elements is the consummation devoutly to be wished, the real enemy of good ballet is not the slight preponderance of one or the other but the prevalence of pantomime
the turning of dance into second-rate theater. — John Simon

Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion. — Martha Graham

The effort of learning. It's the same when you approach any new skill or technique, from a dance step to driving a car. The effort of learning stops you, at first, from doing it well. — Antony Sher

It doesn't matter how high you lift your leg. The technique is about transparency, simplicity, making an earnest attempt. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

Master technique and then forget about it and be natural. — Anna Pavlova

It is a temptation to exploit one's technique because an audience is easily reached this way, but they cannot be moved by technique alone and to move an audience is the role of dance as an art. — Alla Osipenko

The only reason for mastering technique is to make sure the body does not prevent the soul from expressing itself. — La Meri

Dancers today can do anything; the technique is phenomenal. The passion and the meaning to their movement can be another thing. — Martha Graham

Technique-bodily control-must be mastered only because the body must not stand in the way of the soul's expression. — La Meri

David Alford technique that does NOT serve expression leads to exibitionism. — Agrippina Vaganova