choreographers

"'I have never forgotten one moment of what Michael did to me, but I was psychologically and emotionally completely unable and unwilling to understand that it was sexual abuse.'"

"'From seven years old, from day one of the abuse, Michael told me that we loved each other and this was love, this was an expression of our love.'"

"'I'm never going to go away with this for the sake of money. I'm never going to be silenced for money. That's not going to happen.'"

"'And then he would follow it up with, "but if you ever tell anyone what we are doing both of our lives and careers would be over"'."

"'And for the first time in my life, I began to realize that my completely numb and unexplored feelings about what Michael did to me might be a problem and maybe I need to speak to somebody about it.'"

"Right now, there are more people on Facebook than there were on the planet 200 years ago. Humanity’s greatest desire is to belong and connect, and now, we see each other. We hear each other. We share what we love. And this connection is changing the way the world works."

"After a treacherous journey we finally arrived in Sudan, on top of the Nuba Mountains, and with it came a shocking 130° degree [fahrenheit, 54° celsius] heat — and right from the start, we could tell, this was not the adventure we had expected. There wasn't much to do."

"I’m surprised by the success of anything I do, but it’s gratifying when the public approves."

"I actually go, 'Wow! How lucky can a girl get?"

"I guess once I finish a dance and release it to the public and we're performing it, I'm kind of done... Well, I love watching it, and I love watching other people's work too if it's really good and interesting. But you know, the most exciting part is also very often the most frustrating part: trying to finish something or get it just right or get across something that I'm not sure what it is until it happens.”"

"The culture has changed, and times have changed, you know, the whole thing about being queer has changed entirely. So then I was the bad boy, a self-proclaimed homosexual choreographer. In the early ‘80s I said I was gay all the time because it was important politically."

"I don’t, believe it or not. I don’t miss the roar of the crowd. I still get that when I take a bow, if I milk it right. I’m not regretful, but I’m envious sometimes."

"I was an "other," as people call now. But you know, everybody's other than everybody else...I used what was called the "sissy test" — you know, look at your fingernails; if you do it a certain way, you're a butch or a femme. But it turned into a little bit of a look back when I made up a dance based on the quotidian humiliations of junior high school — that age, that degree of development and that confusion and annoyance that happens."

"I like working with grown-up dancers much better, because there’s somebody to talk to at the airport when you’re delayed. In the middle of class, they hate me for it, but I always say, ‘What are you reading right now?’ or ‘Did you see this movie?’ or ‘Who wrote that piece of music?’ I do little quizzes to keep people involved and not just to become robotic dancing machines, because I hate to watch that."

"If that means that it's not for everybody, then yes. "Elitist" doesn't need to mean wealthy and conservative; it can also mean specialised and rarefied, and that's no bad thing."

"I believe firmly in that theory that the stuff you learn when you’re very, very young, it sort of stays. The very first dance I made up that was any good, I was about 15, and I’ve been wringing changes out of that ever since. That’s interesting to me. That’s not death. It’s style or something."

"Technique without art is shallow and doomed. Art without technique is insulting."

"Women, you don't want to try to be pretty, it's a lie. You want to be beautiful, to tell the truth. Pretty is a manipulation. You want to be beautiful. To tell the truth. Truth is beauty."

"So when you have to ask yourself: "Why am I holding back, why am I doing pictures?" And it's usually: that's because you're afraid. Bottom line. And for great art you have to be brave. So that the whole world is going to laugh at you but you don't care, do you get me? And when they say: "Ah that's stupid!" You don't care. You follow that song. I'm sorry, it's true."

"And guess what: you don't need much technique to do that… You don't! You just have to live the idea. But some of you're afraid, you get it? And so you think and you pose. And honey there is nothing more boring. That's a whole other world, that's the world of phoniness, glamour magazines that devised us, right? And so in dance we want to see the truth, let's ride of that."

"And so what you admire in human beings… Are they things you admire in human beings? Yes or no? And they're things that you don't like, right? And we also have those things inside of us, right? And so we wanna see, we wanna see what you're saying, what you're living, what you're experiencing, not pictures… What that's gonna do for me?"

"Because you're supposed to serve the art, right? So if I was your mother and your father, I would say: "This is my daughter, she is so cute…", right? But you're a human being in a brutal world who's looking to get… Ah beauty, I feel better. I want to be as beautiful, I want to be as honest, I want to be as fearless, I want to be as kind, do you understand me? That's what we're looking for… Because of the way that you dance, the way that you handle, because it's so honest."

"So, you have to be a leader. So you may think: what we're looking at? What do you think we're looking at? We are looking for the best qualities in humanity: we're looking for courage, fearlessness… That's what we are looking for: we are looking for qualities in humanity! Kindness, compassion… Do you understand me? And so when you think: "I'm a dancer!" No, you want to be a poet, so that you're taking people into ideas, not steps. Does that make sense?"

"It doesn't work, when you're thinking. It doesn't work… It doesn't work, do you understand that? Because we see, the viewer sees: you're thinking. And so we're worried, we're preoccupied, right. Is she OK?"

"You don't see much honesty… You don't! You don't see much honesty, do you? What's another very rare word: humility. You don't see it much. It's beautiful. You can have that in your dancing. It's like: "I'm not dancing, something's dancing me." So it's not: "Sir, I'm doing this!" No, I'm receiving something. It's beautiful. Sincerity. Do you get me? And so those are the things you have to live in. You don't need much technique to do that. But that's the important stuff. Does that make sense?"

"It’s pretty amazing to be a part of the Star Trek family. It’s definitely a highlight of my career. I never imagined it’d lead to so many great opportunities to appear in other films, travel the world to make appearances, be featured in a comic strip, trading cards and even action figures. The fans are the most loyal, more than any franchise or brand. It’s pretty amazing how Star Trek continues to be relevant with so many TV series and films."

"I didn’t know what to expect when I made my first convention appearance (in Las Vegas in 2005). I was blown away by the loyalty and knowledge of the fans. They attend these events annually and know more about our characters than we do. Some of them were even dressed in costumes, even as Orion slaves painted in green. Star Trek fans are the most loyal fans."

"Cage took it to work in his way of making compositions then; and he used the idea of 64—the number of the hexagrams —to say that you had 64, for example, sounds; then you could cast, by chance, to find which sound first appeared, cast again, to say which sound came second, cast again, so that it's done by, in that sense, chance operations. Instead of finding out what you think should follow—say a particular sound—what did the I Ching suggest? Well, I took this also for dance."

"I was working on a title called, “Untitled Solo,” and I had made—using the chance operations—a series of movements written on scraps of paper for the legs and the arms, the head, all different. And it was done not to the music but with the music of Christian Wolff."

"Merce [Cunningham] is my favorit artist in any field. Sometimes I’m pleased by the complexity of a work I paint. By the fourth day I realize it’s simple. Nothing Merce does [choreography for dance] is simple. Everything has a fascinating richness and multiplicity of direction. [Jasper Johns did a lot of décors for Merce Cunningham, as Robert Rauschenberg did and Frank Stella..."

"John Cage and I became interested in the use of chance in the 50's. I think one of the very primary things that happened then was the publication of the "I Ching," the Chinese book of changes, from which you can cast your fortune: the hexagrams."

"I met him [Merce Cunningham] around 1953 after a performance I saw. He was teaching and making dances for his company and was already working with John Cage. What interested me initially wasn’t just the movement but also the music he worked with, which was unfamiliar to me.. ..Later [[Robert Rauschenberg|Bob Rauschenberg] had been doing sets and costumes for the Cunningham Company.. .I can’t say exactly how, but for a period of time, Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg, and I saw each other frequently and exchanged ideas. John [Cage] was very interested in presenting his ideas to other people, so it was impossible to be around and not to learn.."

"If a dancer dances - which is not the same as having theories about dancing or wishing to dance or trying to dance or remembering in his body someone else's dance - but if the dancer dances, everything is there.. ..our ecstasy in dance comes from the possible gift of freedom, the exhilarating moment that this exposing of the bare energy can give us. What is meant is not license, but freedom...(1952)"

"I was surrounded by dance, music and religious chants, so it was that kind of a mood. Our family was very culturally-minded, especially my grandmother. She was also quite the disciplinarian. She made sure I practiced daily for hours."

"I don’t know if I am wrong, but singing slightly out of sur is also in vogue these days. And these pelvic movements and gestures are too much for me."

"But first I was made to learn music, because music and dance go together. You can sing, but you can’t dance without music..."

"My first colour sequence was in what was then called ‘Geva Colour’ for the dream sequence in Nagin."

"My dances were not like today’s, which have progressed with an Indian and Western combination or fusion which has become repetitive. You cannot tell one dance from the other. Everyone wants to be Michael Jackson. But I like some of them like that ‘Radha kaise na jale’ from Lagaan. I like classical stuff."

"I always cribbed about having such a long name and my grandmother would say that nobody else will be called ‘Vyjayanthimala'."

"And when I joined politics people told me it wasn’t the same as the Independence era, so you can imagine how it has become now. It’s such a sad thing. Instead of taking to the country to a higher level we are going downwards."

"I think I was born to dance. That’s what my grandmother told me. So it was always in my system."

"We came from a conservative family, many of whom had never even gone to school. But I was sent to a convent and everyone was very proud that I was educated. So once while I was performing in Madras, a director from AVM studios spotted me. They were looking for a fresh face and they immediately wanted to cast me, and my grandmother grudgingly accepted."

"Today’s dancers are not dignified. There’s a lot of talent but they are getting ample help. In our time you had to get the steps right, the words right and the movement right. Otherwise you had to start all over again. Today even if they miss a step it can be adjusted at the editing."

"There were so many different characters that I have played. Radha in Sangam was a very sophisticated woman and the setting was very refined, while in Dhanno in Gunga Jumna was rustic, a village belle. Even the language was different."

"As it is, being a South Indian I used to say my own lines and everybody marveled at it, and then to learn Bhojpuri... Dilipsaab was very helpful."

"If any screen actress of recent times had ruled the film scene with the sway and swagger of a fabled queen it was surely Vyjayanthimala, the volatile, vibrant and the most gorgeous star of Hindi screen."

"Danseuse extraordinaire, Vyjayanthimala's greatest legacy to cinema is that today it is de rigeur for every girl who enters the Hindi film industry to be an accomplished dancer. Yet there was more to light-footed Vyjayanthi than magical moves."

"If Bharatanatyam helped my movies, I cannot say the same about films helping my Bharatanatyam."

"Sangam had many firsts. The first technicolour film, the first film to have two intervals — in a way I was a part of history."

"aAs a creative artiste dedicated to a spiritual art form I was deeply pained by the communal violence in Gujarat."