39+ Agnes De Mille Quotes On Education, Art And World

Agnes De Mille was an American dancer and choreographer known for her innovative and theatrical choreography. She was a major influence in American dance, creating works such as the groundbreaking ballet Rodeo and the musical Oklahoma! She was the first female choreographer to be commissioned by the New York City Ballet. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Agnes De Mille on life, education, love.

Top 10 Agnes De Mille Quotes

1. No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently.
2. To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.
3. The truest expression of a people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie.
4. Many other women have kicked higher, balanced longer, or turned faster. These are poor substitutes for passion.
5. The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate.
6. Then I did the simplest thing in the world. I leaned down... and kissed him. And the world cracked open.
7. A good education is usually harmful to a dancer. A good calf is better than a good head.
8. Dancers aren't made of their technique, but their passion.
9. The choreographic process is exhausting. It happens on one's feet after hours of work, and the energy required is roughly the equivalent of writing a novel and winning a tennis match simultaneously.
10. Find the passion. It takes great passion and great energy to do anything creative. I would go so far as to say you can't do it without that passion.

Agnes De Mille Short Quotes

• My heroines are part of me and my heroes are part of what I'd like to know.
• Friends die one by one, but so, thank God, do enemies.
• No white man uses his feet the way an Indian does. He talks to the earth.
• I studied the way I danced- to the point of dropping.
• Who am I?, the artist asks. And he devotes his whole life to finding out.
• Dance constitutes a true recapturing of... freedom and childish play.
• Ballet technique never becomes easy, it becomes possible
• Living is a form of not being sure, not know what next or how... The artists never entirely knows.
• Dance in the body you have.

Agnes De Mille Quotes About People

Theater people are always pining and agonizing because they're afraid that they'll be forgotten. And in America they're quite right. They will be. — Agnes De Mille

Dancing is such a despised and dishonored trade that if you tell a doctor or a laywer you do choreography he'll look at you as if you were a hummingbird. Dancers don't get invited to visit people. It is assumed a boy dancer will run off with the spoons and a girl with the head of the house. — Agnes De Mille

One of the good things about my having some recognition is that I can do something for the people I think ought to have more and correct some of the matters fate fails to take care of. — Agnes De Mille

Agnes De Mille Quotes About Dancers

Modern dancers give a sinister portent about our times. The dancers don't even look at one another. They are just a lot of isolated individuals jiggling in a kind of self-hypnosis and dancing with others only to remind themselves that we are not completely alone in this world. — Agnes De Mille

Modern dancers give a sinister portent about our times. — Agnes De Mille

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

Toe dancing is a dandy attention getter, second only to screaming. — Agnes De Mille

I want one word on my tombstone - dancer. — Agnes De Mille

Agnes De Mille Famous Quotes And Sayings

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark. — Agnes De Mille

I learned three important things in college-to use a library, to memorize quickly and visually, to drop asleep at any time given a horizontal surface and fifteen minutes. What I could not learn was to think creatively on schedule. — Agnes De Mille

If you want to understand a nation, look at its dances and listen to its folk songs - don't pay any attention to its politicians. — Agnes De Mille

The practice mirror is to be used for the correction of faults, not for a love affair, and the figure you watch should not become your dearest friend. — Agnes De Mille

Ours is an upbeat, a hurried, hasty beat. It keeps pressing us to go farther, to include everything so that we can savor everything, so that we can know everything, so that we will miss nothing. Partly it's greed, but mainly its curiosity. We just want to experience it. And we do. — Agnes De Mille

I had had to learn the difference between the bearable fatigue and the unbearable, the fatigue of fear. The first can be cured by a night's sleep; the second kills. — Agnes De Mille

We can't stand silence, because silence induces thinking. And if we thought, we would have to face ourselves. — Agnes De Mille

To make up a dance, I still need, as I needed then, a pot of tea, walking space, privacy and an idea. — Agnes De Mille

When I dance I am really meditating rather then performing for an audience. I am completely absorbed by the music and the steps I choose to respond to the music. — Agnes De Mille

The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark. — Agnes De Mille

There is something fearfully strengthening about cutting free even if the ties bandage the heart itself. — Agnes De Mille

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. — Agnes De Mille

Life Lessons by Agnes De Mille

1. Agnes De Mille taught us to never give up on our dreams, no matter how hard the journey may be. She persevered through countless rejections and failures to become one of the most influential dancers of the 20th century.
2. She also showed us the importance of hard work, dedication, and passion. She worked tirelessly to hone her craft and create works that pushed the boundaries of dance.
3. Finally, she showed us the power of collaboration. She worked with some of the most talented artists of her time, and her collaborations produced some of the most iconic works in the history of dance.