# Quotes about dance - Quotes: 11 - Authors: 9 - Broader topic: [Quotes about art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.json ## Quotes > To be one of those finalists on that floor is like... like being in a dream world in which accidents don't happen." [Athol Fugard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/athol-fugard.md) · [MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS](https://www.leafyquotes.com/athol-fugard/master-harold-and-the-boys.md) · p. 45 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/athol-fugard/master-harold-and-the-boys/to-be-one.md) Topics: [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.md) > Sam: There's no collisions out there, Hally. Nobody trips or stumbles or bumps into anybody else. That's what that moment is all about. To be one of those finalists on that dance floor is like... like being in a dream about a world in which accidents don't happen. > > Hally: Jesus, Sam! That's beautiful! > > Willie: [Can endure waiting no longer.] I'm starting! [Willie dances while Sam talks.] > > Sam: Of course it is. That's what I've been trying to say to you all afternoon. And it's beautiful because that is what we want life to be like. But instead, like you said, Hally, we're bumping into each other all the time. Look at the three of us this afternoon. I've bumped into Willie, the two of us have bumped into you, you've bumped into your mother, she bumping into your Dad... None of us knows the steps and there's no music playing. And it doesn't stop with us. The whole world is doing it all the time. Open a newspaper and what do you read? America has bumped into Russia, England is bumping into India, rich man bumps into poor man. Those are big collisions, Hally. They make for a lot of bruises. People get hurt in all that bumping, and we're sick and tired of it now. It's been going on for too long. Are we never going to get it right? ... Learn to dance life like champions instead of always being just a bunch of beginners at it? > > Hally: You've got a vision, Sam! > > Sam: Not just me. What I'm saying to you is that everybody's got it. That's why there's only standing room left for the Centenery Hall in two weeks' time. For as long as the music lasts, we are going to see six couples get it right, the way we want life to be. > > Hally: But is that the best we can do, Sam watch six finalists dreaming about the way it should be? > > Sam: I don't know. But it starts with that. Without the dream we won't know what we're going for. And anyway I reckon there are a few people who have got past just dreaming about it and are trying for something real. [Athol Fugard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/athol-fugard.md) · [MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS](https://www.leafyquotes.com/athol-fugard/master-harold-and-the-boys.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/athol-fugard/master-harold-and-the-boys/sam-theres-no-collisions.md) Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.md) > Delta girls are born dancing and never stop, which is as it should be, for surely it is the finest form of human amusement except tennis and talking. (Ch. 12) [William Alexander Percy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy.md) · [Lanterns On The Levee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/delta-girls-are.md) Topics: [dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.md) > Life is the dancer and you are the dance. [Eckhart Tolle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle.md) · [A New Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/life-is-the.md) Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.md) > [...] he can see no reason why people need to dance. Dancing makes sense only when it is interpreted as something else, something that people prefer not to admit. That something else is the real thing: the dance is merely a cover. Inviting a girl to dance stands for inviting her to have intercourse; and dancing is a miming and foreshadowing of intercourse. So obvious are the correspondences that he wonders why people bother with dancing at all. Why the dressing up, why the ritual motions; why the huge sham? — Chapter 11, pages 89–90. [J. M. Coetzee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee.md) · [Youth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/youth.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/youth/he-can-see.md) Topics: [sex](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sex.md), [dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.md) > Truly the world should belong to singers and dancers. [J. M. Coetzee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee.md) · [Waiting for the Barbarians](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians.md) · p. 68 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/waiting-for-the-barbarians/truly-the-world.md) Topics: [music](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/music.md), [dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.md) > At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha, a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway. It was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement. My frivolity would only hurt the Cause. > > I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. I told him to mind his own business. I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from convention and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement would not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. "I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things." Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world — prisons, persecution, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own closest comrades I would live my beautiful ideal. (p. 56) [Emma Goldman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-goldman.md) · [Living My Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-goldman/living-my-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-goldman/living-my-life/at-the-dances.md) Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.md), [anarchism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/anarchism.md) > They dined on mince, and slices of quince, > > Which they ate with a runcible spoon; > > And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, > > They danced by the light of the moon, > > The moon, > > The moon, > > They danced by the light of the moon. [Edward Lear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-lear.md) · [The Owl and the Pussycat](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-lear/the-owl-and-the-pussycat.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-lear/the-owl-and-the-pussycat/they-dined-on-mince.md) Topics: [dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.md) > I heard the drums coming down the street and then the fifes and the pipes and then they came around the corner, all dancing. The street full of them. Maera saw him and then I saw him. When they stopped the music for the crouch he hunched down in the street with them all and when they started it again he jumped up and went dancing down the street with them. He was drunk all right. 'You go down after him', said Maera, 'he hates me'. [Ernest Hemingway](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway.md) · [In Our Time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway/in-our-time.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway/in-our-time/i-heard-the.md) Topics: [dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.md) > Dancing is like fucking... it doesn't matter how you look - just concentrate on how you feel. [Erica Jong](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong.md) · [Fear of Flying](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/fear-of-flying.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/fear-of-flying/dancing-is-like.md) Topics: [dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.md) > The very fact that Mr. McCabe thinks of dancing as a thing belonging to some hired women at the Alhambra is an illustration of the same principle by which he is able to think of religion as a thing belonging to some hired men in white neckties. Both these things are things which should not be done for us, but by us. If Mr. McCabe were really religious he would be happy. If he were really happy he would dance. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/the-very-fact.md) Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dance.md)