"Dance you shall,” said he, “dance in your red shoes till you are pale and cold, till your skin shrivels up and you are a skeleton! Dance you shall, from door to door, and where proud and wicked children live you shall knock, so that they may hear you and fear you! Dance you shall, dance—!"

"Now the old lady fell ill, and it was said that she would not rise from her bed again. She had to be nursed and waited upon, and this was no one’s duty more than Karen’s. But there was a grand ball in the town, and Karen was invited. She looked at the red shoes, saying to herself that there was no sin in doing that; she put the red shoes on, thinking there was no harm in that either; and then she went to the ball; and commenced to dance."

"People dance because dance can change things. One move can bring people together. One move can set a whole generation free. One move can make you believe like you're something more. … Dance can give hope."

"Never trust spiritual leader who cannot dance."

"The dance is strong magic. The dance is spirit. It turns the body to liquid steel. It makes it vibrate like a guitar. The body can fly without wings. It can sing without voice. The dance is strong magic."

"The truest expression of people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie."

"Of what is the body made! It is made of emptiness and rhythm. At the ultimate heart of the body , at the heart of the world there is no solidity…there is only the dance."

"Dance to the song of life."

"One you have danced, you always dance."

"Dancing symbolizes the rhythmic, patterned movements of life itself. Music and dance amplify and make manifest to our senses the unheard tones and unseen waves that weave together the matter of existence. Even when we are sitting most still or resting in deep sleep, the atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, organs and systems of our body dance in astounding harmony and exchange the ambient energies from air, water, food and invisible electromagnetic radiation."

"Sports and fitness are not the only media of physical experience that use the body as a source of enjoyment, for in fact a broad range of activities on rhythmic or harmonious movements to generate flow. Among these dance is probably the oldest and most significant, both for its universal appeal and because of its potential complexity…But just as with athletics, one certainly need not become a professional to enjoy controlling the expressive potential of the body."

"Jack shall pipe, and Jill shall dance."

"And beautiful maidens moved down in the dance, With the magic of motion and sunshine of glance: And white arms wreathed lightly, and tresses fell free As the plumage of birds in some tropical tree."

"Dance light, for my heart it lies under your feet, love."

"But O, she dances such a way! No sun upon an Easter-day, Is half so fine a sight."

"While his off-heel, insidiously aside, Provokes the caper which he seems to chide."

"Inconsolable to the minuet in Ariadne!"

"We are dancing on a volcano."

"Once on a time, the wight Stupidity For his throne trembled, When he discovered in the brains of men Something like thoughts assembled, And so he searched for a plausible plan One of validity,— And racked his brains, if rack his brains he can None having, or a very few! At last he hit upon a way For putting to rout, And driving out From our dull clay These same intruders new— This Sense, these Thoughts, these Speculative ills— What could he do? He introduced quadrilles."

"He, perfect dancer, climbs the rope, And balances your fear and hope."

"I saw her at a country ball; There when the sound of flute and fiddle Gave signal sweet in that old hall, Of hands across and down the middle Hers was the subtlest spell by far Of all that sets young hearts romancing: She was our queen, our rose, our star; And when she danced—oh, heaven, her dancing!"

"I know the romance, since it's over, 'Twere idle, or worse, to recall;— I know you're a terrible rover; But, Clarence, you'll come to our ball."

"Dear creature!—you'd swear When her delicate feet in the dance twinkle round, That her steps are of light, that her home is the air, And she only par complaisance touches the ground."

"Dancing in the chequer'd shade."

"Come and trip it as ye go, On the light fantastic toe."

"He who esteems the Virginia reel A bait to draw saints from their spiritual weal, And regards the quadrille as a far greater knavery Than crushing His African children with slavery, Since all who take part in a waltz or cotillon Are mounted for hell on the devil's own pillion, Who, as every true orthodox Christian well knows, Approaches the heart through the door of the toes."

"Twelve dancers are dancing, and taking no rest, And closely their hands together are press'd; And soon as a dance has come to a close, Another begins, and each merrily goes."

"And the dancing has begun now, And the dancers whirl round gaily In the waltz's giddy mazes, And the ground beneath them trembles."

"To brisk notes in cadence beating Glance their many-twinkling feet."

"Such pains, such pleasures now alike are o'er, And beaus and etiquette shall soon exist no more At their speed behold advancing Modern men and women dancing; Step and dress alike express Above, below from heel to toe, Male and female awkwardness. Without a hoop, without a ruffle, One eternal jig and shuffle, Where's the air and where's the gait? Where's the feather in the hat? Where the frizzed toupee? and where Oh! where's the powder for the hair?"

"What! the girl I adore by another embraced? What! the balm of her breath shall another man taste? What! pressed in the dance by another's man's knee? What! panting recline on another than me? Sir, she's yours; you have pressed from the grape its fine blue, From the rosebud you've shaken the tremulous dew; What you've touched you may take. Pretty waltzer—adieu!"

"Hot from the hands promiscuously applied, Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side."

"Endearing Waltz—to thy more melting tune Bow Irish jig, and ancient rigadoon. Scotch reels, avaunt! and country-dance forego Your future claims to each fantastic toe! Waltz—Waltz alone—both legs and arms demands, Liberal of feet, and lavish of her hands."

"Imperial Waltz! imported from the Rhine (Famed for the growth of pedigrees and wine), Long be thine import from all duty free, And hock itself be less esteem'd than thee."

"O give me new figures! I can't go on dancing The same that were taught me ten seasons ago; The schoolmaster over the land is advancing, Then why is the master of dancing so slow? It is such a bore to be always caught tripping In dull uniformity year after year; Invent something new, and you'll set me a skipping: I want a new figure to dance with my Dear!"

"This dance of death which sounds so musically Was sure intended for the corpse de ballet."

"O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?"

"It is sweet to dance to violins When Love and Life are fair: To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes Is delicate and rare: But it is not sweet with nimble feet To dance upon the air!"

"I always thought dancing improper; but it can't be since I myself am dancing."

"When you do dance, I wish you A wave o' th' sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that."

"For you and I are past our dancing days."

"He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute."

"They have measured many a mile, To tread a measure with you on this grass."

"Dance is about saying something. If you ain’t got nothin' to say, get off the dance floor."

"Oh! if to dance all night, and dress all day, Charm'd the small-pox, or chas'd old age away; * * * * * * To patch, nay ogle, might become a saint, Nor could it sure be such a sin to paint."

"Others import yet nobler arts from France, Teach kings to fiddle, and make senates dance."

"Ich würde nur an einen Gott glauben, der zu tanzen verstünde."