Quotes by Savion Glover - Page 2

Just like a comedian has a certain joke or a jazz musician has a riff that they know will get the crowd, a tap dancer always has a step.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Comedian
Jazz Musician
Musician
Tap
Riff
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I try new stuff every time I perform. I have steps I do that I know are definite, and stuff I can make up right then and there and then forget.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Definite
New Stuff
Steps
Stuff
Time New Know
Perform
Every Time
Make Up
There And Then
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I come from a long line of people who express themselves through the dance. I come from a long line of people who create music through their feet.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Long Line
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I wasn't into tapping when it began dying down. Ever since I started, it's been alive for me. I just want to keep on dancing. I want to do it all.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Dying
Tapping
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La Cave was a great platform for me to learn and be able to listen in on conversations and just get a lot of notes and teachings from those older guys.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Notes
Older Guys
Cave
Conversations
La
Platform
Teachings
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I used to think I had this responsibility to carry on this tradition. Now I just feel like I have to keep the dance out there, keep it in the public eye.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Public Eye
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The spirituality of the dance, that's something that's evolved for me in the past ten years or so. I'm still trying to figure out where that's taking me.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Spirituality
In The Past
Ten Years
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I've changed my whole angle for dance. I'm moving towards moving back rather than hanging out with my peers. I'm reaching back to older dudes for a second.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Angle
Peers
Reaching
Dudes
Hanging
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I search for different tonalities in my taps. But my greatest pleasure is hearing a note I haven't heard before, hearing a chord that sparks something new.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Something New
Sparks
Chord
Greatest Pleasure
Note
Search
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I was always looking at footage of dancers from Nicholas Brothers to Ralph Brown to Sand Man to Miller Brothers and Lois, and I grew up looking at old footage.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Sand
Dancers
Footage
Miller
Ralph
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Every now and then, someone comes along - we used to call it 'New Jack' - tries to do something new, tries to take all the credit, without acknowledging the past.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Credit
Now And Then
Something New
Acknowledging
Jack
Tries
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They all come from the street - tap, jazz and flamenco. And the streets are always changing. If it comes from the streets, change is the only thing that's consistent.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Consistent
Streets
Tap
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Movie making is such a long process, and they only use that one take, although you do it over and over about 30 times. Live theatre is that one time and one time only.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Movie Making
One Time
Time Long Process
Long Process
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When you think about John Coltrane, in my opinion - and I think I share this opinion with a lot of people - his approach to music changed other people's approach to music.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Coltrane
In My Opinion
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Great athletes last because they let the mental do all the work. What we do as hoofers is not so much a physical strain as everybody thinks. It's more of a mental stretch.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Strain
Athletes
Work Great More
Stretch
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I want tap to be something danced in arenas. Sort of like a rock group. Other art forms happen every night. Take theater, opera; there's always opera happening every night.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Every Night
Opera
Arenas
Art Forms
Forms
Tap
Danced
Rock Group
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The Nicholas Brothers were the best tap-dancers. I'm not talking about their flash-dancing, I'm talking about tap-dancing. They were really saying something with their feet.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Feet
Not Talking
Talking
Brothers
Saying
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I don't like being too serious. I'm the type of person that, if the mike isn't in the right place when I go on, I just move it. Other people, they'll be all frantic. I'm more relaxed.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Frantic
Mike
Relaxed
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What does genius mean? God has put us here specifically... every person has a job or journey to do. It's just a matter of finding what we're here to fulfill or execute. That's genius to me.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Execute
Fulfill
Specifically
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When you find real jazz on the radio dial, it comes in all static-y. It's just like tap dancers. You have to go uptown to find the real hoofers. We only come to midtown if we're called upon.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Tap
Dancers
Dial
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There are many different styles of, and approaches to, tap. My own leans towards a more intellectual view: tap dancing not just for the sake of entertainment but to educate and spark emotion.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Different Styles
Educate
Emotion
Sake
Approaches
Tap
Spark
Styles
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I feel it's my duty, my job, now to allow people to hear the dance to different genres of music, to ensure audiences have the chance to listen to tap dancing up against all these other styles.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Different Genres
Music Chance People
Tap
Ensure
Genres
Styles
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I was a drummer in a group called Three Plus. We were performing at a club in New York, and my mother signed me up for tap classes. I fell in love from the door... so you can blame it on my mother.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Blame
Drummer
Performing
Plus
Love Mother Me
Love Me New
Classes
Tap
Signed
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What we're looking for at my school is intellectuals. People who want to talk about the art and be knowledgeable about it. People who want to know the history. Not everybody needs to be performing.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Performing
Intellectuals
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I was very happy with the success of 'Noise/Funk,' but of course, there is a lot more that I have to say about the dance, about the history, about the people involved with the dance and their history.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Dance
Involved
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My show mode is that the dressing room is like going into the cockpit. Going down the stairs is like going on the runway, and once we begin performing, it's flight time. I'm just floatin' on that stage.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Cockpit
Flight
Performing
Runway
Stairs
Dressing
Dressing Room
Mode
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The sound of tap is not 'clickety clickety tap tap,' this monotone thing. The sound of tap has depth. We want you to hear the different highs and lows, the bass, the trebles and the melodies, if you can.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Depth
Lows
Tap
Highs
Melodies
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There are people who take tap class, do a tap dance. And then there are people who know the dance, who know why they take tap classes. Who know why they do 20 shuffles, or 50 shuffles, before they go on.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Dance
Class
People Dance Know
People Know Why
Tap
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It wasn't until I did a musical revue in Paris in the 1980s called 'Black and Blue,' and met the great men and women responsible for the progress of tap dance, that my relationship with the dance really began.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Blue
Great Men
Men And Women
Men Women Relationship
Tap
Relationship Women Men
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I'm still growing, still learning. I'm still open and vulnerable enough to know there's much more to be taught to me and learned by me. I hope I don't reach my pinnacle on this earth where I think I know it all.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Learning
Earth
Enough
Growing
Pinnacle
Taught
Vulnerable
More
Much
Me
Open
Still
Learned
Reach
Where
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I was first introduced to dancing through the TV: I remember watching ballet, jazz and ballroom dancing when I was very little. But I felt no connection with it whatsoever: it was just like watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Ballet
Cartoon
Connection
Introduced
No Connection
Tom
Whatsoever
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I'm happy that people think of me as the greatest tap-dancer that ever lived. But it's just a rumor. Because the greatest dancer that ever lived knows everything, and I don't. I'm still learning. I still have a lot of work to do.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Rumor
Work Learning Me
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It's as if my left heel is my bass drum and my right heel is the floor tom-tom. I can get snare out of my right toe by not putting it down on the floor hard, and, if I want cymbals, I land flat on both feet, full strength on the floor.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Drum
Floor
Heel
Snare
Toe
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I see myself helping the next generation of dancers who come along, helping them to keep the dance focused, so we don't get into a position where they're saying in 2050, or whatever, that around 2001 or 2002 or something the dance died.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Helping
Dancers
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Frank Sinatra changed people's approach to singing. Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, van Gogh, they were all part of movements that allowed people to think about their craft differently. They changed the game. These people changed the game.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Frank
Craft
Ella
Fitzgerald
Gogh
Movements
Sinatra
Van
Van Gogh
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When I'm on TV or whatever, I'm able to bring my instruments, my board, and my sound is intact. But other kids who are on TV, when they're doing tap, sometimes they're just on the regular floor. It's not as safe; it's not as sound-worthy as it should be.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Instruments
Board
Tap
Floor
Other Kids
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The connection of what I do to flamenco lies in the whole lament, whole cry, whole pouring back into the earth and giving energy back to the earth. It's a cry and a celebration. That's what music, sound, vibration should do. It should spark energy in someone.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Celebration
Cry
Lament
Pouring
Connection
Spark
Vibration
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I am realizing and accepting my role as a tap dancer in this world is not only to tap dance for the sake of performance, but through tap dance be able to share and spread a message and congregate with people I would not necessarily be with had it not been for dance.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Realizing
Sake
Spread
World I Am People
Tap
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There's no dancer alive better than those of the 1950s and 1960s. It's only the energy that changes. Every now and then, someone like me comes along, and people say, 'Oh, this guy is this new thing.' But that's not so. There is no me without them. The tradition just goes on.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Now And Then
Me Energy Better
New Thing
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I never really stop and think about should I put my hat on this way or that, not thinking that little JoJo down the street would be copying that. I'm more conscious about it now and tell the kids that it's not about the shoes or what kind of shoes... it's all about the dance.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Conscious
Copying
Hat
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My mom couldn't afford dance shoes, so she put me in these old cowboy boots with a hard bottom so I could get some sound out. I used them for seven months. When I finally got real tap shoes, I was nervous. I kept moving my feet, thinking, 'Oh, so this is how it's supposed to sound.'
Savion Glover / Dancer
Boots
Bottom
Cowboy
Nervous
Afford
Mom Thinking Me
Tap
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I can produce any instrument, any sound that I can imagine; it may be percussive to the audience, but in my mind it may be a piano, a melody, or a tuba, or a harp, or a harmonica. My mission is to allow people to hear the dance in its purity and up against any other type of sound or music.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Dance
Imagine
Melody
Produce
Purity
Type
Allow
Music Mind People
Harmonica
Instrument
Mission
Tuba
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I grew up watching Gregory Hines banging out rhythms like drum beats, and Jimmy Slyde dancing these melodies, you know, bop-bah-be-do-bap, not just tap-tap-tap. Everyone else was dancing in monotone, but I could hear the hoofers in stereo, and they influenced me to have this musical approach towards tap.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Banging
Beats
Jimmy
Me Know Everyone
Tap
Drum
Everyone Else
Influenced
Melodies
Rhythms
Stereo
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My personal style at this point in my life is more audio; it's more driven on less visual and more musicality. But because of my upbringing, my fabulous mentors and teachers that I've had throughout my dance journey or career, I also possess a style that is of the past. It was just a matter of me reaching back.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Audio
Driven
Fabulous
Musicality
Personal Style
Reaching
Upbringing
Visual
Life Journey Me
Teachers
Mentors
Possess
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Tap dancing is like... it's equivalent to music, not only for the African American community, but also for the world. Tap dancing is like language; it's like air: it's like everything else that we need in order to survive. I'm blessed and honored to be knowledgeable of the art form and to be a part of the art form.
Savion Glover / Dancer
Music
Air
Blessed
Community
Dancing
Form
Honored
Order
World
Art Music World
African
American
Also
Art Form
Part
Tap
Else
Equivalent
Everything Else
Survive
To Survive
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Savion Glover Quotes - Page 2

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