Inspiring Dance Quotes to Ignite Your Passion

Explore a curated collection of inspirational quotes from renowned dancers and choreographers that celebrate the art of dance. These quotes capture the essence of movement, passion, and the transformative power of dance. Whether you're a dancer or simply an admirer of the art form, these words will inspire you to embrace your own rhythm and express yourself through movement. From the wisdom of Martha Graham to the insights of Misty Copeland, discover how dance transcends mere technique and becomes a profound expression of the soul. Let these quotes motivate you to dance like nobody's watching and to find joy in every step you take.

Wisdom from the Masters

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

- Edward Lear

Joy

"Dancers are the athletes of God."

- Albert Einstein

Strength

"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

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

- Mikhail Baryshnikov

Self-awareness

"Dancers are made, not born."

- Mikhail Baryshnikov

Personal Growth

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

- Michaela Deprince

Leadership

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

- Erol Ozan

Creativity

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

- Misty Copeland

Belief in Self

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

- Chuck Berry

Empowerment

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

- Normani Kordei

Inner Peace

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

- Lynda Barr

Contentment

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

- Gene Kelly

Joy

"Keep proving them wrong."

- Michaela DePrince

Determination

"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

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

- Trisha Brown

Ambition

"Your fragility is also your strength."

- Pina Bausch

Strength

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

- Paulo Coelho

Self-awareness

"Dancers are both athletes and artists."

- Margot Fonteyn

Balance

"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

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

- Agnes De Mille

Empowerment

"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

"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

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

- Sylvie Guillem

Integrity

"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

"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

"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

"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

"Every morning I am a beginner."

- Hanya Holm

New Beginnings

"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

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

- Neve Campbell

Balance

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

- Anna Pavlova

Goals

"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

"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

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

- Katherine Jenkins

Happiness

"A good dancer is an educated one, so don’t abandon school."

- Deborah Bull

Education

"Dancing can reveal all the mystery that music conceals."

- Charles Baudelaire

Awareness

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

- Agnes de Mille

Ambition

"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

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

- George Carlin

Connection to Earth

"Dance is the hidden language of the soul."

- Martha Graham

Creativity

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

- A Chorus Line

Joy

"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

"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

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

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Awareness

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

- Samuel Beckett

Creativity

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

- Margot Fonteyn

Creativity

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

- Arianna Huffington

Personal Growth

"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

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

- Misty Copeland

Personal Growth

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

- Martha Graham

Ambition

"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

"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

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

- Agnes de Mille

Connection to Earth

"The body says what words cannot."

- Martha Graham

Creativity

"Dancing is silent poetry."

- Simonides

Creativity

"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

Courage

"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

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

- C.S. Lewis

Aspirations

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

- Erik Bruhn

Courage

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

- Anna Pavlova

Goals

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

- Michael Jackson

Transformation

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

- Vera Ellen

Health

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

- Twyla Tharp

Courage

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

- Bernard F. Asuncion

Hard Work

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

- Maxwell Maltz

Learning from Mistakes

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

- Louis Horst

Self-awareness

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

- Japanese Proverb

Joy

"Dancing is like dreaming with your feet!"

- Constanze Mozart

Joy

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

- Kurt Vonnegut

Joy

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

- Pierce Brosnan

Connection to Earth

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

- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Aspirations

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

- Steven Thompson

Creativity

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

- Susan polis Schutz

Joy

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

- Emma Goldman

Courage

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

- Lee Ann Womack

Joy

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

- Debasish Mridha

Learning

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

- Jamaican Proverb

Awareness

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

- Edwin Denby

Joy

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

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Contentment

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

- Jeanne Stein

Contentment

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

- Joker

Adaptation

Bite-sized Inspirational Quotes

"The comeback is always stronger than the setback."

- Unknown

Resilience

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

Connection to Earth

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

Self-awareness

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

Adaptation

"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

"No standing. Only dancing."

Joy

"Dance lightly with life."

Joy

"When I dance I love to express myself in emotion. I most serenely do not do it to impress people, if anything I impress myself in how good of a goon I am doing."

Self-awareness

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

Adaptation

"Mom, you know, people are just really beautiful. Just like look at all those beautiful dancers. I think I could like a girl. I could date girls."

Compassion

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

Courage