The Quotable Dancer contains 1300
humorous dance quotes from stage & big screen, as well as an
extensive A-Z of general dance topics and an all-embracing card of dance
styles from Classical Ballet to Street Dance ..."Mixing Ballet
and Breakdance is like mixing apples and space-ships."
Touré
in USA Today (2001)
The book also contains the fun things said by and about famous dancers
such as: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Busby Berkeley, Martha Graham,
Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Bob Fosse, Nijinsky, John Travolta, Patrick
Swayze, Michael Jackson, Michael Flatley, Savion Glover, even Mumbles
the Penguin & Wall-E. "Michael
Jackson's dance moves were angular and twitchy, hinting at digital stops
and starts rather than analog fluidity - except, of course, for his
famous Moonwalk, the image of someone striding gracefully without ever
leaving center stage."
Jon Pareles
in The New York Times (2009)
With dance being a global phenomenon, this book reflects the
cosmopolitan appeal of the terpsichorean art. With entries from all over
the world and from down the centuries, this book still retains a firm
focus on and the idealogical identity of dance the world over.
"The Soft-Shoe
Shuffle, the wistful Tom Sawyerish scuffing of the stage boards that
says Americans experience an isolating loneliness as if by the
provenance of birth."
T.E.
Kalem
in Time
magazine (1975)
An
editor's choice selection of quotations
from The Quotable Dancer
...
DANCE in GENERAL
"Stifling an urge to dance is bad for your
health - it rusts your spirit and your hips."Adabella
Radici
"Dancing is beautiful and sexy, unless it's
at an open-bar wedding reception."Ross
Werland
in The Chicago Tribune (2009)
"Bad dancing is more fun to watch than bad
singing is to listen to."Dana Stevens
on Slate.com (2005)
"Choreography is like
moisture in the mouth of an orator."David
Lichine
"A lot of people insisted on a wall between
Modern Dance and Ballet. I'm beginning to think that walls are very
unhealthy things."Twyla
Tharp
"My love of my life is dancing, things like
Tap, Modern, Ballet and Jazz. Also I love singing, even though my voice
sounds awful, and watching me dance is like watching an elephant, so
no-one does!"Princess
Diana
Letter to her nanny Mary Clarke (1978)
"I'm not an egomaniac like a lot of people
say. But I am the world's best dancer, that's for sure."Michael
Flatley
DANCERS
FRED ASTAIRE & RITA HAYWORTH
"Fred Astaire's two films with Rita Hayworth
are more than enough to make you forget Ginger Roger's ... Hayworth
packs a shimmy that would knock Ginger back to the flatlands."Dave
Kehr
in The Chicago Reader
JONATHAN BURROWS and MATTEO FARGION
Speaking Dance [2006] - "Burrows and
Fargion belong simultaneously in Victorian music-hall and a cognitive
research science lab."Ismene
Brown
in The Daily Telegraph (2006)
CYD CHARISSE
"Her persona was smoky, sinuous, and cool: a
quintessential 50s mix of sex and poise. She was the choreographic
equivalent of a classic Sinatra LP."Ty
Burr
in The Boston Globe (2008)
SAVION GLOVER
"When I go see him, if he knows 'Im there,
he'll do some of my steps. The only thing is, he'll throw it in, but
he'll throw it in at, like, Mach 2."Gregory
Hines
MICHAEL HUISMAN
Margot {2009} - "Nureyev (Huisman)
handsome as a Beatle, taut-haunched as a stag, and sailing across the
stage like the first arrow in a castle siege." Caitlin
Moran
in The Times (2009)
MICHAEL JACKSON
"At some point in the early 1980s, Michael
Jackson realized he could Moonwalk I'ts a great stunt. Jackson liked it
so much, he turned it into a lifestyle."Giles
Smith
in The Independent (1992)
GENE KELLY
An American In Paris (1951) - "Astounding
footwork and choreography from Gene Kelly, who makes Justin Timberlake
look positively arthritic by comparison."Empire
magazine (2003)
MADONNA
Vogue <1990> - "A dance-floor
training manual on looking good."Stephen Holden
in The New York Times (1990)
MARIINSKY BALLET
"The Mariinsky is not just a company. It's a
saga about a dynasty whose bloodline is that of Ballet itself. Think of
it as a sweeping Russian epic following the fortunes of an artistic,
aristocratic family that is always, always aware of its breeding."Sanjoy
Roy
in The Guardian (2008)
NEW YORK CITY BALLET
"Always succinct in his suggestions,
Balanchine once told a dancer, 'Reach for it like you're reaching for a
Cadillac.' They just don't reach for those Cadillacs at N.Y.C.B.
anymore. It's SUV City Ballet now."Toni Bentley
in The New York Review Of Books (2005)
RUDOLF NUREYEV
"Surveying choreographers, he said: 'Go and
choose brain.' Like Hannibal Lecter, he sawed open the skull and feasted
on the cerebrum."Peter Conrad
in The Observer (2007)
THE RADIO CITY ROCKETTES
"Nothing says Great Depression like the
tap-tap-tap of dancing shoes and a long, spangled kick line."Alessandra Stanley
in The New York Times (2007)
MOIRA SHEARER
The Red Shoes (1948) - "She inspired
more girls to dream of Ballerinadom than any since Pavlova ... She
danced, with charm and almost infinite promise. She crossed the dance
sky like a comet - never to be forgotten."Clive Barnes
in Dance magazine (2006)
JOHN TRAVOLTA
Saturday Night Fever (1977) - "Travolta
jaywalked across the disco floor with the hormonal dazzle of a porno
polyester peacock." Owen
Gleiberman
in Entertainment Weekly (2000)
DANCE on FILM
CENTER STAGE (2000)
"This adolescent, awkwardly acted backstage
romance wouldn't seem to call for heavy lifters, yet Susan Stroman, a
two-time Tony winner, provided choreography with Christopher Wheeldon,
of the N.Y. City Ballet. Why didn't they just hire Debbie Allen?"Rita Kempley
in The Washington Post (2000)
FLASHDANCE (1983)
"A seemingly impossible combination of a
feminist Rocky, a bar girl Fame and Jane Fonda's Workout
... the plotting in Flashdance is as loose as the dancing."
Jay
Cocks
in Time magazine (1983)
SAVE THE LAST DANCE 2 (2006)
"Turns out it wasn't quite the last dance
last time." Christopher
Null
on FilmCritic.com (2006)
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)
"The choreography and dancing in this film
are unforgettable ... The dance numbers in this film make you want to
run out and buy a pair of Tap shoes."Cheryl
Northcutt
on ApolloGuide.com
DANCE on STAGE
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
"Jerry Mitchell has picked Cagelles dancers
who are also acrobats, and, sure enough, the high kicks are
heaven-storming and the cartwheels could loft a helicopter."John
Simon
in New York magazine (2004)
CHICAGO
"Welcome back to Chicago, where the
gin's cold, the piano's hot, the dancing's even hotter ... and all that
jazz. "Octavio Roca
in The San Francisco Chronicle (2003)
42nd STREET
"42nd Street is the Gospel According to Tap Dance."Skip
Sheffield
in The Boca Raton News (1985)