Top 570 Dancer Quotes

I’ve had an extraordinary life as a dancer. You tour the world, you see all the great capitals of the world, the beautiful old opera houses all over Europe – you go everywhere. As a teenager, I would always say, ‘I can’t believe this is happening to little me,’ because it was always a dream to dance.

I like to say, ‘Once a dancer, always a dancer.’ In everything – the way you walk, the way you move, the way you talk, the way you sit – everything is just, you’ve been trained a certain way your whole life, so it’s a bit muscle memory.

I realized early on, I’m more interested in Baryshnikov than some dancer who wants to do a rock show with ballet.

I copied my brother. He was a natural dancer. Graceful. People always asked did we study ballet. We never did.

I’ve always wanted to be a professional dancer, I’d always wanted to be a ballerina. I trained for 13 years but it never came to be.

I know that I’m talented, and I know that I’m not in American Ballet Theater because I’m black – I’m here because I’m a gifted dancer.

Figure skating has been a great influence for me. I took dance at the School of American Ballet, which helped my own skating. And whether you are a skater or a dancer, without sounding narcissistic, it is all about looking in the mirror.

Being an actor is lot like being a dancer: you always have to go back to the bar and either work or take classes. Otherwise, you’ll get rusty.

Ideally, a dancer should put in 10 hours of daily practice to deliver a polished performance.

People say that wrestling is not ballet. But as a former ballerina, I’d like to see some of these men put on a pair of tights and go do what a dancer does. Because it’s a lot! It’s definitely difficult.

There’s an innate feeling when I choreograph in juxtaposition to how I feel as a dancer. When I choreograph, I never really look into the mirror. But as dancers, we always check ourselves in the mirror. I do feel that when I choreograph, I am making a dance on my own body. Much of it is my own response to the music.

I think if you are going to be a singer, you should sing. If you are going to be a dancer, you should dance. If you are going to do a combination of the two, you should make it very clear when you are singing and very clear when you are dancing.

I have been a professional dancer and athlete my entire life.

If I hadn’t become an actress, I would be a dancer.

Being a dancer and a singer gave me some advantage with regards to having a stage presence. I always take my timing from the audience because they are half of my act.

I was a dancer for many years. I was a premier dancer with ‘Porgy and Bess,’ the opera. And I taught dance some, in different places.

With Bolshoi technique, the movements are quite large, the jumps are big, and I’m a tall dancer, so I’ve learned to use my height more, to elongate my moves, jumps and positions. I’m physically using my body more to my advantage.

My mum was a dancer. She would tour the world with a group, and she had me in a dance class when I was still in a nappy. They told her to come back when I could walk.

Beyonce is a beautiful, elegant woman who is also a wonderful dancer. And her voice is sublime. Just like her husband, Jay-Z, Beyonce has real talent. They are both the kind of truly great artist who will be remembered by history. Their child will be lucky to have such talented parents.

I’m not a trained singer, I’m not a trained dancer.

You just can’t take a crash course to be a tango dancer in a movie.

I don’t understand why no one says ‘I want to become a dancer.’

I realized that ‘performing’ was what I wanted to do when I did my first professional gig as a dancer with my company ‘Synergy’ in Canada. I was overwhelmed with how it felt to perform in front of an audience.

A dancer’s life is as peripatetic and unstable as that of an actor’s. You’re freelancing yourself all the time, and a dancer’s lifespan is even shorter than an actor’s: once they turn 30 or 35, they have to stop.

I’m a hell of a bloody good dancer.

I am a singer and dancer and I want to focus on this aspect of my personality.

It became my first passion, the first thing I really fell in love with. I joined the Ralph Robinson Ballet company, and then went to New York and became a dancer. I thought I’d die before I did anything else.

I’m not a very good dancer. My feet don’t point far enough; my extension is embarrassing. Dance, for me, has been hard because it’s a strive for perfection.

Nobody is born a dancer.

Diana Vishneva is not only a magnificent dancer but a magnificent actress – no one works harder or understands more.

The body cannot lie. You cannot be somebody else onstage, no matter how good of an actor or dancer or singer you are. When you open your arms, move your finger, the audience knows who you are, you know.

As a dancer, you really try to stay true to whatever the choreographer/artistic director is giving you. So, now the shoe is on the other foot and I have to trust everyone else – I have to trust the dancer. As I was trusted as a dancer, I trust my dancers.

I became an ardent, but never a specially good, dancer.

When my brother and me got into performing in the late ’40s and early ’50s, it was a sensational opportunity to learn from our elders. Every show we played had a dancer, a comic, a juggler, a singer, an acrobat. I came to appreciate virtuosity in all forms of the business.

When I was a dancer, I was acting.

I could say now at 66, yeah, I was a fabulous dancer. I was really terrific, you know. But I was always present. I was present. I was supposed to be where I was supposed to be at the time I was supposed to be.

I don’t have any high aims or goals, but I hope to continue my journey of multi-tasking as I have been doing so far as an actor, dancer, and also serving people of the nation.

I like my body. I don’t want to have to change it for anything – even if that means I have to take a step down as a dancer. I don’t think I’m ever going to sacrifice my figure for anyone else to accept me.

I wanted to inspire every little girl who wants to be a dancer to fire their imagination about the joys of being on the stage.

I used to be a dancer.

Yoga changed my body 100 percent. It tones everything and leans you out. Dancer’s pose is amazing. It works every muscle!

Maybe in another life I would have liked to have been a dancer. But I was a cheeky chappy who wanted to be an actor.

I walk like a duck: very straight up and down. Or like a penguin. It’s a dead giveaway that I’m a dancer.

I did not want to be a tree, a flower or a wave. In a dancer’s body, we as audience must see ourselves, not the imitated behavior of everyday actions, not the phenomenon of nature, not exotic creatures from another planet, but something of the miracle that is a human being.

Before I was an actor I was a break dancer, one of those street performers you see. I guess my introduction into the professional world of performing was a stint as back up dancer for Lionel Richie and I performed at the closing ceremony at the ’84 Olympics.

I grew up in San Francisco, and I trained as a ballet dancer until college.

Who the hell is Sambhavna to talk about my personal life? Before talking about others she should look at herself. What is she only a C-grade film item dancer.

I think I just have this need to be a storyteller. That’s why I wasn’t a great dancer – I couldn’t articulate a story. I was a better choreographer. I have the need to to just express myself in that way. I can’t explain it.

I didn’t know if I could act, but I knew I could be a great ballet dancer, and Balanchine put out the carpet for me.

Even when I was working for the company as a dancer, I didn’t think it was even going to be a feature in the future at all. The Wiggles had understudies in case there were family issues, but it was never a thing.

Dance is a universal language, and whether you know how to dance or grew up training in dance, you have a respect for people who love to dance, and it’s also visually very entertaining to watch a great dancer.

I had a wonderful childhood, coming from Cincinnati, and I think that it was great going into the life that I was going to have, where you have to start young as a dancer.

I can actually feel the interior body of a dancer. I have the ability to capture a split second… I want you to be hit with whatever the essence is of this sculpture.

Sayyeesha is a great dancer.

I am a professional dancer, so picking up dance steps was like brushing my teeth.

I’m very proud of the colour of my skin and that I’m inspiring people from all backgrounds, but I think it will be great for the next mixed-race or black female principal dancer if she doesn’t have to be asked about that.

My dreams of taking the West End by storm as a dancer flickered but then faded; my father’s ambition to see me in a steady office job was tried and abandoned. But I had won a national speaking award, had stood for election to the local council, had begun to travel and took a job working for the Labour Party.

I’m basically a dancer and cinema just happened to me, sometimes I still wonder how I could become an actor. My friends too keep asking how I pulled it off.