Dance Quotes by Judith Jamison

Dancing is a gift. You are supposed to do it; it's like breathing.

— Judith Jamison

Dance is not endangered - it will always find a way to express itself.

— Judith Jamison

One you've danced, you always dance.

— Judith Jamison

Every dancer lives on the threshold of chucking it.

— Judith Jamison

Dance is about never-ending aspiration.

— Judith Jamison

People come to see beauty, and I dance to give it to them.

— Judith Jamison

I was a protege; by the age of 10, I was studying with ballet choreographer Anthony Tudor in a class of adults.

— Judith Jamison

You don't enter a dance studio and say "I can't do that." If you do, then why are you in the studio…

— Judith Jamison

Maybe its a generational thing, but I never wanted to be the best black dancer in the world. I just wanted to…

— Judith Jamison

I felt the naivete of a child in my dancing. I cherished that feeling. I had what I call a knowledgeable naivete,…

— Judith Jamison

Dancers use their bodies in extraordinary ways, so we are chronically pre-arthritic, because of how we use our muscles and our bones.

— Judith Jamison

I'm very smart when it comes to choosing dancers and trying to show the world that there's a whole lot of dancing…

— Judith Jamison

You have to dance unencumbered. There's no other way to move. The idea of dance is freedom. It is not exclusiveness, it's…

— Judith Jamison

I've danced all over the world, and people are people. We cannot cut off from each other in life. In order to…

— Judith Jamison

Since babyhood, I've always evolved from one thing to another. My mother gave me ballet lessons at 6 as part of her…

— Judith Jamison

I want people to have their own visions for the dance. Some generations will sit back and relate to the music. And…

— Judith Jamison

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…

— Judith Jamison

As long as there are dancers around who love to dance, there will be an Alvin Ailey American Dance Company. We miss…

— Judith Jamison

Dancing is bigger than the physical body. Think bigger than that. When you extend your arm, it doesn't stop at the end…

— Judith Jamison

Dance is bigger than the physical body. When you extend your arm, it doesn't stop at the end of your fingers, because…

— Judith Jamison

Dancing is being trusted with other people's guts; choreographing is trusting other people with yours. When I choreograph I'm giving a dancer…

— Judith Jamison

People don't remember me for how high my legs went, even though they went up very high, and how many pirouettes I…

— Judith Jamison

It's called the Ailey American Dance Theatre, not the Alvin Ailey African-American Dance Theatre. One thing also that Alvin wanted people to…

— Judith Jamison

The way Alvin Ailey has transformed modern dance and dance in general is the fact of variety. It's a cornucopia of ways…

— Judith Jamison

I can't really hear the audience applause when I'm on stage. I'm totally immersed in the piece. But sometimes I get a…

— Judith Jamison

Once you've danced, you always dance. You can't deny the gifts that God sends your way

— Judith Jamison

The world is full of ways for people to dance. Concert dance doesn't get its due.

— Judith Jamison

I believe in spirit and then I believe a manifestation of spirit is dance

— Judith Jamison

Maybe it's a generational thing, but I never wanted to be the best black dancer in the world. I just wanted to…

— Judith Jamison

As a dancer, you really try to stay true to whatever the choreographer/artistic director is giving you. So, now the shoe is…

— Judith Jamison

I could say now at 66, yeah, I was a fabulous dancer. I was really terrific, you know. But I was always…

— Judith Jamison

I've always felt that complement of opposites: body and soul, solitude and companionship, and in the dance studio, contraction and release, rise…

— Judith Jamison

We're dancing from here, from inside, not from outside. You could look at anybody throwing their leg and kick their leg up…

— Judith Jamison

If you look at a dancer in silence, his or her body will be the music. If you turn the music on,…

— Judith Jamison

Concert dance is the hardest kind of dance. We tour constantly, around the world, year in and year out. It just doesn't…

— Judith Jamison

My idea for the Jamison Project was rather like a pickup company. The idea was to give the dancers a taste of…

— Judith Jamison