Obligation is a flimsy base for creativity, way down the list behind passion, courage, instinct, and the desire to do something great.
Whether or not God has kissed your brow, you still have to work. Without learning and preparation, you won’t know how to harness the power of that kiss.
I can’t emphasize this idea enough. Getting involved with your collaborator’s problems almost always distracts you from your own. That can be tempting. That can be a relief. But it usually leads to disaster.
A dancer’s life is all about repetition.
Never worry that rote exercises aimed at developing skills will suffocate creativity. At the same time, it’s important to recognize that demonstrating great technique is not the same as being creative.
The great ones never take fundamentals for granted.
The more you know, the better you can imagine.
I always, somehow, knew that I was going to dance.
Doing is better than not doing, and if you do something badly you’ll learn to do it better.
What I do remember is visualization of the sound of music, seeing bodies in movement in relation to how music sounded, because my mother practiced at the keyboard a lot and I also went to her lessons. As a two year old, three year old I remember seeing things in movement.
When creativity has become your habit; when you’ve learned to manage time, resources, expectations, and the demands of others; when you understand the value and place of validation, continuity, and purity of purpose, then you’re on the way to an artist’s ultimate goal; the achievement of mastery.
I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission, and that’s what I set out to do.
Mastery is an elusive concept. You never know when you achieve it absolutely and it may not help you to feel you’ve attained it. We can recognize it more readily in others than we can in ourselves. We have to discover our own definition of it.
Once you accept the power of spine in the creative act, you will become much more efficient in your creativity. You will still get lost on occasion, but having a spine will anchor you.
Well, Mozart is extraordinary not only in that he became virtuoso along the lines of his father, but that he had that compositional gift, that melodic gift. By the time he was four, he was doing piano concertos with harmony in the background.
Whenever I feel I’m working in a groove it’s invariably because I feel I am being the benefactor in the situation rather than the beneficiary. I am sharing my art with others, lending my craft to theirs, interest-free with no IOU.
The ballet needs to tell its own story in such a way it can be received without having to be translated into language.
Alone is a fact, a condition where no one else is around. Lonely is how you feel about that.
My greatest fear in working is always the end. Lately I have taken to tricking myself into finishing by leaving a hole in the middle somewhere, then stitching the two pieces together – the Union Pacific approach.
Energy and time are finite resources; conserving them is very important.