Every dancer benefits from inspirational words and sayings which lift their spirit, keep them motivated, reflect a studio's mission and speaks to their dancing soul. Below are some of my favorite, which I've collected over the years which always seem to resonate with young dancers in some way as well as faculty and teachers alike.
Think about showcasing one or two that speak to you, whether as decals or signs on your studio walls, written on a large chalk or whiteboard or passed out to your dancers! Sometimes we all need a little lift with affirming words and sometimes showcasing our studio spirit sets the tone for the goals you are trying to achieve and inspires the students you are teaching!
"Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity." -Bo Bennett
“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.” John Wooden
“Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” Vince Lombardi
Working in collaboration leads to a rich dialogue yielding unexpected results." -Alexander Gorlizki
"The soul of art is inspiration." -Ginia A. Davis
“Great Dancers are not because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.” -Martha Graham
“The universe lies before you on the floor, in the air, in the mysterious bodies of your dancers, in your mind. From this voyage no one returns poor or weary.” -Agnes de Mille
“How can we know the dancer from the dance?” -William Butler Yeats
“Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made.” -Ted Shawn
“It is the job of the artist to deepen the mystery.” -Sir Francis Bacon
“I do not want dancers who want to dance I want dancers who have to dance.” -George Balanchine
“Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is not mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself.” -Havelock Ellis
“Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels.” -Faith Whittlesey
“The most essential thing in dance discipline is devotion, the steadfast and willing devotion to the labor that makes the classwork not a gymnastic hour and a half, or at the lowest level, a daily drudgery, but a devotion that allows the classroom discipline to become moments of dancing too.” -Merce Cunningham
“Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.” -Martha Graham
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” -Albert Einstein
”The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” -Mark Van Doren
“If you want to dance seriously, do. You must think about it day and night, dream about it,-desire it.” -Christa Justus
People tend to look at dancers like we are these little jewels, little cardboard cut-outs, and yet we have blood and guts and go through Hell.” -Susan Jaffe
“To touch to move to inspire- this is the true gift of dance.” -Aubrey Lynch
“The dancer, or dancers, must transform the stage for the audience as well as for themselves into an autonomous, complete, virtual realm, and all motions into a play of visible forces in unbroken, virtual time...Both space and time, as perceptible factors, disappear almost entirely in the dance illusion.” -Susanne K. Langer
“It takes ten years, usually, to make a dancer. It takes ten years of handling the instrument, handling the material with which you are dealing, for you to know it completely.” -Martha Graham
“The dance, just as the performance of the actor, is kinesthetic art, art of the muscle sense. The awareness of tension and relaxation within his own body, the sense of balance that distinguishes the proud stability of the vertical from the risky adventures of thrusting and falling--these are the tools of the dancer.” -Rudolf Arnheim
“If one had to define one essential gift with which a dancer needs to be endowed, there might be a rush of answers. A beautiful body, grace of line, graciousness of spirit, joy in the work, ability to please, unswerving integrity, relentless ambition towards some abstract perfection. Certainly all these factors determine a dancer’s character, and every element exists in some combination within the performing artist’s presence.” -Lincoln Kirstein
“So many dancers rely on some sort of magic happening on the stage. They never, for various reasons, work full out in rehearsal. That’s very uncreative. They don’t discover the kinds of things that add up to a remarkable performance.” -Benjamin Harkarvy
“So many dances leave me untouched, unmoved. A dancer should be able to raise an arm and make someone cry--in the way Isadora Duncan did. It is a necessity for any art to move you.” -Pauline Koner
“The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.” -Mikhail Baryshnikov
“To sing well and to dance is to be well educated.” -Plato
“Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It's the rhythm of your life. It’s the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy.” ~Jaques D'Amboise
“Dance is bigger than the physical body. Think bigger than that. When you extend your arm, it doesn't stop at the end of your fingers, because you're dancing bigger than that: your dancing spirit.” -Judith Jamison
“Dance for yourself. If someone else understands, good. If not, no matter. Go right on doing what interests you, and do it until it stops interesting you.” ~Louis Horst
“On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined.” ~Lord Byron
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars. -Les Brown
Good luck!
See you in the dance studio,
Jess
