I have always wanted to tell stories. Even as a classical dancer, I revel in telling stories through my dance.
I think people don’t often realize how much goes into being a male dancer. It’s athletic and it’s hard. It’s not just men wearing tights, or wanting to be around women.
To me, this was an oxymoron, doing a painting of a dancer. Dancers are always moving.
An ex-ABT ballerina, while staging a ballet for the company, once followed a dancer into the bathroom to deliver notes through the stall door. She was known to bark – literally, like a dog – during private rehearsals.
I went to see ‘The Greatest Dancer’ when it was filmed in Birmingham. And they announced the show’s judges’ names and then Curtis’ name. The crowd went wild.
For me, it’s about being comfortable… but I can feel comfortable in a thong leotard and on stage. Growing up as a dancer, that’s how I’m comfortable in my body. It’s about where you grew up and those things; it’s a way of communicating your spirit to the world.
I have done masters in Political Science but deep down in my heart I wanted to be a dancer.
A footballer in three weeks earns what a dancer makes in a year.
You realize you can get good at something, even though ballet almost felt like you could never be good enough. No matter how hard you worked, it was so hard to be a great dancer.
To illustrate what I mean, an apt dancer may be in thorough unison with the others in that particular group, and at the same time reveal a difference in dancing temperament, rhythm or technique; she may phrase, accentuate or actually interpret differently.
I was always a singer and a dancer, and I always wanted to be an actress. For me, it’s all just one thing.
I wanted to be a professional dancer for a period of time, and I did a lot of dancing and choreography and got paid for it.
I’ve grown up disciplined all my life as a dancer, so I know how to eat and work out.
People were being so mean as a result of my ability – a gift, really. So I think that’s what makes me fight harder to provide an option to aspiring kids or artists. I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what I went through… to see a little girl or a little dancer experience such unnecessary rejection.
I’m a b-boy for life. I’m a dancer, I started with free style dancing and b-boying during the ’80s and I always said to myself that when I get the chance to do my own thing, I will always have the b-boy element and the dance element because that’s where I come from.
The only dancing I did was at the discotheques. I was a very good disco dancer. I say that I learned disco dancing at the wrong places.
Well I started out as a dancer, so I was used to this performing – performance arts. Started out getting used to being on stage. As I got a lot older that became public speaking or debate.
When I was in high school, they opened an arts high school. I didn’t read music, and I wasn’t a trained dancer, so I was like, ‘OK, I guess I’ll go into acting.’ I asked my mom if she knew any plays for my audition, and the only one she knew was ‘A Raisin in the Sun.’
Not everyone is a good dancer but you just have to enjoy doing it. Dance as if no one is watching.
I was a late bloomer, but I had a career as a contemporary dancer before that, so I had some kind of connection to this world. But I was always a little more in love with the drama of dancing than the aesthetics, so I thought, ‘Why don’t you give it a chance if you think you can do it a little different?’
When I was 3 years old, my parents put me in ballet and I really thought I was gonna be a ballet dancer for a long time.
I wish I’d become a professional dancer sooner. I did other jobs – like baking – while dancing part-time, and didn’t commit until I was 29.
As a professional ballet dancer, I have to accept that weekends are about work. The notion of a leisurely break with all the buzz and excitement of a Friday night simply doesn’t exist for me.
She trained as a ballet dancer yet she was an iron fist in a velvet glove. My younger brother Luca and I had a wonderful childhood since she would try to guide us gently down the right path.
I trained as a dancer when I was much younger, for a large amount of time, like 6 or 7 years. Not to be a ballet dancer, actually, but I thought it was a complement for an actor. I thought that actors should know how to move, should know how to juggle, should know how to do acrobatics.
When you’re a dancer who is injured, you are at the bottom of the food chain. We are so replaceable.
I’m not the most confident dancer, to be honest. Dancing on film was very difficult for me because you can see it after it’s been done.
I started as a hoofer and all-round chorus girl. I did my first ballet lesson when I was three, then trained as a dancer and went into pantomimes and summer seasons. Acting came later.
Fred Astaire was my dream dancer.
As long as there are dancers around who love to dance, there will be an Alvin Ailey American Dance Company. We miss him so much, but he’s alive as soon as you see a dancer hit the stage.
I am not a very good dancer.
If I was trained as a dancer then I probably would have been a dancer, and I’m not.
I always wanted to be a dancer. I danced for maybe 16 years. So I would have loved to have been a dancer in the past.
Certainly, when you train as a classical dancer, you are very much influenced by ‘Giselle.’ You see it all the time; you start to learn the steps a little.
I’ve always been a figure skater and ballet dancer. I love physical comedy, and any chance that I get to do that… that is so me.
My mother, Barbara, was a dancer from the age of 14 to 19. She toured with the comedian Max Wall in a dance group of six girls.
I was a salsa dancer for the majority of my life, from, like, 7 to 17, and did the World Salsa Congresses. I realized that I wanted to continue obviously to be a performer. But in my household, being an actor and jumping into acting is not really accepted.
I am learning how to dance hip-hop. I’m a good dancer when I dance salsa.
I’m a dancer so anything related to dance I love to do. I also tried Zumba last week. That thing is tough! 15 minutes in I was going for a water break. It wasn’t easy!
My father was a promoter of Fresh Fest, and they needed an opening act. He got me a slot as a dancer. We tried it out the first time in Atlanta and the crowd went crazy. I was the opening clown.
As a dancer, I’d dance with broken toes. Just like acting, you compete with yourself and drive forward. That discipline helped in Hollywood.
You won’t see me at a microphone singing and tapping my foot. I spend a lot of money on sets, costumes and sound. I believe people deserve a show. I’m a singer, musician, dancer. I work hard, and I’m soaking wet when I come off.
Maddie Ziegler is the most amazing dancer I’ve ever seen, and I’m so obsessed with her. I was obsessed with her even before she did her first Sia video.
I want to be a lawyer, a dancer, an actress, a mother, a wife, a children’s author, a distance runner, a poet, a pianist, a pet store owner, an astronaut, an environmental and humanitarian activist, a psychiatrist, a ballet teacher, and the first woman president.
I’m a dancer, so I love to dance.
Being a dancer is my metaphor for life because you have to know your body. Being a dancer and paying attention to fitness is all about moving in balance.
My mum and dad teach, and all my brothers and sisters have been in ‘Riverdance’ and so forth. So I was forced to become a dancer; it’s part of my family history.
I am a trained classical dancer.
I didn’t have a lot of experience as a dancer.
Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I never wanted to be the best black dancer in the world. I just wanted to be the best.
For me, a dancer is part of an artist’s entertainment – ‘backup dancer’ isn’t even in my vocabulary.
If I have any strength as a dancer, I got it all from Nijinska. Her barre was tough, and there were very difficult combinations.
Ditya Bhande is a nice dancer.
I’m a dancer. I love dancing and going out all the time. It makes me happy.
Yerry Mina’s a great guy. He’s also a great dancer! When he played for Palmeira,s he’d always celebrate with a dance. We became friends, and I speak to him regularly.
I don’t think of myself as a leader. I am, but I don’t think of myself that way. I’m not trying to belittle what I do, but I think of myself as a dancer first. I’ll always be a dancer.
The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing.
I was a dancer, and it’s not really cool for a boy to dance, so it was inspiring to see a movie like ‘Footloose’ where a guy is dancing masculine and had a proper reason behind it. It made me feel cool, and when these kids would make fun of me, I’d be like, ‘Oh, didn’t you see ‘Footloose,’ man?’
People misconstrue when I say I was a dancer. I was not classically trained. I was a street dancer, and I got to do what I did in the nightclubs of New York City.
Too many multi-vitamins are packaged as one size fits all, but you should be more specific about what you need. When I was competing as a dancer, I took zinc for healthy skin and immune system.
