100+ Dance Inspirational Quotes to Ignite Your Passion and Movement

### Discover the Power of Dance Through Words Dance is more than just movement; it's a profound expression of the soul, a language that speaks without words. In this curated collection of over 100 inspirational dance quotes, you'll find wisdom, motivation, and heartfelt reflections from legendary dancers, choreographers, and thinkers. ### Why These Quotes Matter Whether you're a professional dancer, a passionate hobbyist, or someone seeking inspiration, these quotes capture the essence of dance — its challenges, joys, and transformative power. From Martha Graham's insight that "Dance is the hidden language of the soul" to Misty Copeland's encouragement to "Keep proving them wrong," each quote offers a unique perspective to fuel your journey. ### Embrace the Dance Within Let these words inspire you to move with passion, embrace your individuality, and find freedom in every step. Dance is not just an art form; it's a celebration of life itself. Dive into this collection and let the rhythm of these quotes uplift your spirit and ignite your creativity.

Wisdom from the Masters

"Dancers aren’t made of their technique, but their passion."

- Agnes de Mille

Ambition

"Every time I dance, I’m trying to prove myself to myself."

- Misty Copeland

Belief in Self

"Dance is the hidden language of the soul."

- Martha Graham

Creativity

"Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion."

- Martha Graham

Belief in Self

"To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful."

- Agnes De Mille

Empowerment

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment."

- Jim Rohn

Determination

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

- Will Durant

Achievement

"I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what it too deep to find for words."

- Ruth St. Denis

Connection to Earth

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...It's about learning to dance in the rain."

- Vivian Greene

Resilience

"Perseverance has always just been something that was in me. And it was a tool that came in very handy as a ballerina."

- Misty Copeland

Perseverance

"You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive."

- Merce Cunningham

Contentment

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."

- Zig Ziglar

Aspirations

"I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God. Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired."

- Martha Graham

Determination

"Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion."

- Martha Graham

Ambition

"Dancers are made, not born."

- Mikhail Baryshnikov

Personal Growth

"Quality of practice is better than the quantity of practice."

- Ricardo Romero

Focus

"Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion."

- Martha Graham

Motivation

"There is no magic to achievement. It's really about hard work, choices, and persistence."

- Michelle Obama

Hard Work

"Opportunities don't happen. You create them."

- Chris Grosser

Optimism

"You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth."

- William W. Purkey

Happiness

"Dance is the hidden language of the soul"

- Martha Graham

Inspiration

"Dance for me a minute, and I’ll tell you who you are."

- Mikhail Baryshnikov

Self-awareness

"Dance first. Think later. It’s the natural order."

- Samuel Beckett

Creativity

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."

- Robert Collier

Success

"For me, purity of movement wasn’t enough. I needed expression, more intensity, more mind."

- Rudolf Nureyev

Creativity

"Freedom to a dancer means discipline. That is what technique is for — liberation."

- Martha Graham

Courage

"Dance form is logical, but it is all in the realm of feeling, sensitivity and imagination."

- Doris Humphrey

Creativity

"No one can arrive from being talented alone, work transforms talent into genius."

- Anna Pavlova

Hard Work

"You don’t just become a success overnight."

- Darcey Bussell

Success

"This search for what you want is like tracking something that doesn’t want to be tracked. It takes time to get a dance right, to create something memorable."

- Fred Astaire

Perseverance

"To tend, unfailingly, unflinchingly, towards a goal, is the secret of success."

- Anna Pavlova

Goals

"Success depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion, and cannot be achieved except by a dint of hard work."

- Anna Pavlova

Hard Work

"Having limits to push against is how you find out what you can do."

- Sylvie Guillem

Personal Growth

"Every dance you make belongs to you. It is part of your collection. When you think of it like that, you’ll want to make your next routine the best you’ve ever made!"

- Torron-Lee Dewar

Ambition

"Dance is a great way to express yourself."

- Darcey Bussell

Self-awareness

"When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way."

- Wayne Dyer

Contentment

"Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance."

- Oprah Winfrey

Joy

"Dance like nobody’s looking."

- Mark Twain

Joy

"The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it’s considered to be your style."

- Fred Astaire

Creativity

"Dancing has always been a passion for me, one that I will probably never be rid of."

- Darcey Bussell

Ambition

"I hope that every dance I do reveals something of myself or some wonderful thing a human can be."

- Martha Graham

Self-awareness

"I loved to dance because I was scared to speak. When I was moving, I could feel."

- Pina Bausch

Courage

"Who am I?, the artist asks. And he devotes his whole life to finding out."

- Agnes de Mille

Personal Growth

"The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing."

- Doris Humphrey

Creativity

"Ballet was this thing that just felt so innate in me, like I was meant to be doing this."

- Misty Copeland

Belief in Self

"Forget your troubles and dance."

- Bob Marley

Happiness

"Dance and you’ll feel better."

- James Brown

Motivation

"Dance every performance as if it were your last."

- Erik Bruhn

Courage

"Never be afraid to be a poppy in a field of daffodils."

- Michaela Deprince

Leadership

"The body says what words cannot."

- Martha Graham

Creativity

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

- Arthur Ashe

Motivation

"Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art."

- Margot Fonteyn

Creativity

"The expert in anything was once a beginner."

- Helen Hayes

Learning

"Dance. Smile. Giggle. Marvel. TRUST. HOPE. LOVE. WISH. BELIEVE. Most of all, enjoy every moment of the journey, and appreciate where you are at this moment instead of always focusing on how far you have to go."

- Mandy Hale

Gratitude

"I’m trying to make the perfect dance, that’s what drives me."

- Trisha Brown

Ambition

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others"

- Martha Graham

Self-awareness

"Your fragility is also your strength."

- Pina Bausch

Strength

"Life is the dancer and you are the dance."

- Eckhart Tolle

Philosophy

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost."

- Martha Graham

Creativity

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."

- Alan Watts

Resilience

"You'll learn, as you get older, that rules are made to be broken. Be bold enough to live life on your terms, and never, ever apologize for it. Go against the grain, refuse to conform, take the road less traveled instead of the well-beaten path. Laugh in the face of adversity, and leap before you look. Dance as though EVERYBODY is watching. March to the beat of your own drummer. And stubbornly refuse to fit in."

- Mandy Hale

Boldness

"Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free."

- Rumi

Courage

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Inspiration

"The most essential thing in dance discipline is devotion."

- Merce Cunningham

Determination

"Dance constitutes a true recapturing of… freedom and childish play."

- Agnes de Mille

Joy

"Dance is the movement of the universe concentrated in an individual."

- Isadora Duncan

Connection to Earth

"Daily dance uplifts the soul to spiritual realms."

- Lailah Gifty Akita

Spirituality

"Dance is the timeless interpretation of life."

- Shah Asad Rizvi

Philosophy

"You dance because you have to. Dance is an essential part of life that has always been with me."

- Katherine Dunham

Aspirations

"The dance is strong magic. The body can fly without wings. It can sing without voice."

- Pearl Primus

Imagination

"There is something so rewarding about dancing. It’s almost spiritual – you let loose, you feel free, you get endorphins from the exercise."

- Julianne Hough

Happiness

"Technical perfection is insufficient. It is an orphan without the true soul of the dancer."

- Sylvie Guillem

Integrity

"Dance is an art in space and time. The object of the dancer is to obliterate that."

- Merce Cunningham

Creativity

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

- Agnes de Mille

Connection to Earth

"I have lived so long because in those moments when I am dancing, I am beyond time and space."

- Ruth St. Denis

Inner Peace

"Every morning I am a beginner."

- Hanya Holm

New Beginnings

"A year from now, you may wish you had started today."

- Karen Lamb

Motivation

"There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them."

- Vicki Baum

Happiness

"Dancing is like dreaming with your feet!"

- Constanze Mozart

Joy

"Dance is the purest expression of every emotion, earthly and spiritual."

- Anna Pavlova

Empathy

"You were once wild here. Don’t let them tame you."

- Isadora Duncan

Self-confidence

"You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that fleeting moment when you feel alive. It is not for unsteady souls."

- Merce Cunningham

Ambition

"I may not be there yet, but I am closer than I was yesterday."

- Misty Copeland

Personal Growth

"Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythm of your life. It’s the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy."

- Jacques d’Amboise

Connection to Earth

"Learn the craft of knowing how to open your heart and to turn on your creativity. There’s a light inside of you."

- Judith Jamison

Creativity

"The moment is everything. Don’t think about tomorrow; don’t think about yesterday: think about exactly what you’re doing right now and live it and dance it and breath it and be it."

- Wendy Whelan

Presence

"There’s nothing wrong with fear; the only mistake is to let it stop you in your tracks."

- Twyla Tharp

Courage

"To follow, without halt, one aim: There’s the secret of success."

- Anna Pavlova

Goals

"Don't wait. The time will never be just right."

- Napoleon Hill

Taking Risks

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."

- Confucius

Perseverance

"Do not be embarrassed by your failures; learn from them and start again."

- Richard Branson

Learning from Mistakes

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."

- Henry Ford

Belief in Self

"The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces."

- Will Rogers

Goals

"The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise."

- Maya Angelou

Inspiration

"When I dance, I escape the present and become one with my soul."

- Normani Kordei

Inner Peace

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."

- Mark Twain

Motivation

"Keep proving them wrong."

- Michaela DePrince

Determination

"Dance is art; paint your dream and follow it."

- Steven Thompson

Creativity

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

- C.S. Lewis

Aspirations

"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."

- Agnes de Mille

Empowerment

"The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs."

- Charles Baudelaire

Creativity

"Where there is no heart there is no art."

- Anna Pavlova

Creativity

"I think of dance as a constant transformation of life itself."

- Merce Cunningham

Change

"You make mistakes. Mistakes don't make you."

- Maxwell Maltz

Learning from Mistakes

"Follow your passion. Find that something that makes you want to work at it. Work hard. Nothing comes without hard work."

- Tomas Schramek

Determination

"I don’t want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance."

- George Balanchine

Ambition

"Dancers are the athletes of God."

- Albert Einstein

Strength

"If you wait, all that happens is you get older."

- Larry McMurtry

Motivation

"Dancing is the poetry of the foot."

- John Dryden

Creativity

"Dancing is silent poetry."

- Simonides

Creativity

"To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it."

- Osho

Creativity

"Dance for yourself. If someone understands, good. If not, no matter."

- Louis Horst

Self-awareness

"I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself."

- Arianna Huffington

Personal Growth

"Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain."

- Martha Graham

Empathy

"I’m going to tap until I can’t – I’ll be so old, all I can do is walk out from the wings to stage centre. But I’ll be there."

- Gregory Hines

Perseverance

"Dance is like wine; it matures with every performance."

- Alarmel Valli

Growth

"Dancing is surely the most basic and relevant of all forms of expression. Nothing else can so effectively give outward form to an inner experience."

- Lyall Watson

Awareness

"Even today when I rehearse, I give it everything that I’ve got.  If I’m in a performance and the lights go out, I glow in the dark.  When you’re working before an audience, you have to make them feel like they can touch you.  That’s the dancer within, reaching out."

- Mitzi Gaynor

Presence

"Dancers are both athletes and artists."

- Margot Fonteyn

Balance

"If you want to release your aggression, get up and dance."

- Chuck Berry

Empowerment

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

- Agnes de Mille

Connection to Earth

"Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye, but the dance lives on."

- Michael Jackson

Transformation

"When I dance, I forget everything else and just feel completely happy."

- Katherine Jenkins

Happiness

"Practice like you've never won. Perform like you've never lost."

- Bernard F. Asuncion

Hard Work

"To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak."

- Hopi Indian Saying

Connection to Earth

"I have no desire to prove anything by dancing…I just dance."

- Fred Astaire

Self-confidence

"Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Awareness

"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Contentment

"When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance."

- Lee Ann Womack

Joy

"If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution."

- Emma Goldman

Courage

"If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it"

- Isadora Duncan

Philosophy

"You dance love, and you dance joy, and you dance dreams."

- Gene Kelly

Joy

"In a society that worships love, freedom and beauty, dance is sacred. It is a prayer for the future, a remembrance of the past and a joyful exclamation of thanks for the present."

- Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Spirituality

"The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word."

- Mata Hari

Creativity

"Most people fail not because of a lack of desire but because of a lack of commitment."

- Vince Lombardi

Determination

"When you dance, you can enjoy the luxury of being you."

- Paulo Coelho

Self-awareness

"Ballet is a dance executed by the human soul."

- Alexander Pushkin

Spirituality

"Some of my happiest moments have been dancing."

- Claire Danes

Happiness

"Dancing is creating a sculpture that is visible only for a moment."

- Erol Ozan

Creativity

"Dance is certainly a sport, and they are phenomenal athletes, and they’re also artists."

- Neve Campbell

Balance

"If people stand in a circle long enough, they’ll eventually begin to dance."

- George Carlin

Connection to Earth

"To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love."

- Jane Austen

Love

"The job of feet is walking, but their hobby is dancing."

- Amit Kalantri

Inspiration

"Feet’s job is to walk, but their passion is dancing."

- Priyanshu Singh

Inspiration

"Do it big, do it right, and do it with style."

- Fred Astaire

Ambition

"There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good."

- Edwin Denby

Joy

"If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."

- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Aspirations

"Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we should dance."

- Jeanne Stein

Contentment

"Let us dance in the sun, wearing wildflowers in our hair…"

- Susan polis Schutz

Joy

"Love is a lot like dancing; you just surrender to the music."

- Pierce Brosnan

Connection to Earth

"Hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, they danced by the light of the moon."

- Edward Lear

Joy

"All I ever needed was the music and the mirror."

- A Chorus Line

Joy

"Dancing is like bank robbery. It takes split-second timing."

- Twyla Tharp

Creativity

"The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing."

- James Brown

Healing

"Repetition is the mother of skill."

- Tony Robbins

Hard Work

"He who cannot dance puts the blame on the floor."

- Hindu proverb

Responsibility

"We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."

- Japanese Proverb

Joy

"Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but the living room…"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Joy

"Those who can’t dance say the music is no good."

- Jamaican Proverb

Awareness

"Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair..."

- Susan Polis Schutz

Joy

"Dancing is like breathing — missing a day doing either is very bad."

- Vera Ellen

Health

"Bleeding feet will bond us."

- Liza Minelli

Adversity

"Dance is a little insanity that does us all good."

- Edward Demby

Joy

"When your knowledge increases over time, you learn to dance in your mind."

- Debasish Mridha

Learning

"Sleep my little baby-oh Sleep until you waken When you wake you'll see the world If I'm not mistaken... Kiss a lover Dance a measure, Find your name And buried treasure... Face your life Its pain, Its pleasure, Leave no path untaken."

- Neil Gaiman

Inspiration

"The spine is the tree of life. Respect it."

- Martha Graham

Health

"Any kind of dancing is better than no dancing at all."

- Lynda Barr

Contentment

"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world."

- Voltaire

Joy

"Faeries, come take me out of this dull world, For I would ride with you upon the wind, Run on the top of the dishevelled tide, And dance upon the mountains like a flame."

- William Butler Yeats

Inspiration

"Trust me, you can dance."

- Vodka

Motivation

"She would be half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to flamenco guitar."

- Janet Fitch

Inspiration

"Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire."

- George Bernard Shaw

Philosophy

"Dancing is like a shower: one wrong turn and you’re in hot water!"

- Mad Magazine

Joy

"You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

- Joker

Adaptation

"After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels."

- Ann Richards

Joy

"Do a loony-goony dance 'Cross the kitchen floor, Put something silly in the world That ain't been there before."

- Shel Silverstein

Creativity

"May all your shuffle hop steps dance lightly on your SOLE. And you never experience a CRAMP in your ROLL."

- Laurie Johnson

Well-being

"Somebody just gave me a shower radio. Thanks a lot. Do you really want music in the shower? I guess there's no better place to dance than a slick surface next to a glass door."

- Jerry Seinfeld

Joy

"And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon."

- Edward Lear

Joy

"Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane."

- Marcus Tullius Cicero and H.P. Lovecraft

Joy

Bite-sized Inspirational Quotes

"Dance enables you to find yourself and yourself at the same time."

- Unknown

Self-awareness

"Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong."

Motivation

"Don’t let people discourage you. Just fluff out your tutu and dance away."

Courage

"I dance because there’s no greater feeling in the world than moving a piece of music and letting the rest of the world disappear."

Happiness

"When you feel like quitting, think about why you started."

- Unknown

Motivation

"’One more time’ is always a lie."

- Unknown

Motivation

"Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance."

Adaptation

"Dancing is the art of getting your feet out of the way faster than your partner can step on them."

Adaptation

"Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another."

Connection to Earth

"We can’t choose the music that life gives us, but we can choose how to dance to it."

Adaptation

"Behind every dancer who believes in themselves is a teacher who believed in them first."

- Unknown

Empowerment

"The comeback is always stronger than the setback."

- Unknown

Resilience

"No standing. Only dancing."

Joy

"It's not the hours you put in, but what you put into the hours."

Focus

"True mastery lies not in perfection, but in the ability to connect and inspire."

Connection to Earth

"Dance lightly with life."

Joy

"One who expresses one’s self through dance is a dancer. One who expresses one’s self through a dancer is a dance teacher."

- Unknown

Philosophy

"An amazing dance teacher is hard to find difficult to part with & impossible to forget."

- Unknown

Gratitude

"A dance teacher helps her students find the song in their heart the beat in their feet and a passion for life."

- Unknown

Empowerment

"Friends that dance together, stay together."

- Unknown

Relationships

"Confidence is silent. Insecurities are loud."

Self-confidence

"What seems so hard now will someday be your warm up."

- Unknown

Motivation