Robert Gottlieb Quotes

Martha Graham, along with George Balanchine, is one of the two commanding figures in 20th-century American dance. For those much younger than I am, her genius as a performer will have to be taken on faith - and on the always-suspect evidence of film. What will last, if things go well, is her genius as a choreographer, as a woman of the theater.

When I was doing 'Tales from Hollywood' at the National, I was invited to dinner by the choreographer, Kenneth MacMillan. He told me I had the heart of a dancer and asked me if I'd like to come on at the end of 'Romeo and Juliet' as a friar. I said I'd love to, but sadly, MacMillan died shortly after.

The way Alvin Ailey has transformed modern dance and dance in general is the fact of variety. It's a cornucopia of ways to move. There are choreographers in the company as - as diverse, as different from each other as Donald McKayle and Bill T. Jones, or Jawole Zollar and John Butler, Lar Lubovitch, you know, and Judith Jamison.

I wanted to be a male ballet dancer.

On the videos for '1234' and 'My Moon My Man' I wanted to make the songs visible. And, really, what way can you make sound visible other than good old naive dancing? I was working with a choreographer, but I'm not a dancer. Any notion of elegance is impossible with me.

I always want to have more dancers in my company.

I've tapdanced since I was 11 years old. I always wanted to be a tapdancer, and that's all I ever wanted to be.

I had always choreographed a little, beginning in high school. And I leaned toward choreography. I always had an overview of what was going on.

I'm a choreographer and a director, and I have no ambition beyond that.

I knew I wanted to be the Steven Spielberg of dance.

Martin Joyce is a beautiful dancer and an amazing choreographer. He choreographed the Mulberry dance film I was in, 'From London with Love.' A truly talented man.

When I began to choreograph and find my way pulling other artists' dreams out and changing music in a visual way, there was still a part of me that had something more to say. There was still a desire to rock a stage and ultimately perform the eight count of my dream, but there was a lot of insecurity there.

I'm very smart when it comes to choosing dancers and trying to show the world that there's a whole lot of dancing going on.

I never studied with Balanchine, but his work was very important to me.

Dancers can get to see almost everything now. When I used to go into companies to make a piece, the dancers had hardly ever seen my work. Now they can watch it on YouTube. It means they're much faster at picking up material.

When the opportunity to choreograph came up, it was nothing more in my head but an opportunity. Then it suddenly became a career very quickly.

No, but way before that, I've been doing little dances in movies for years. Yeah, that was an amazing chance. You know, at my age to be able to do a music dance video, very unusual.

Dancing is a tough career, but I'm glad I spent it at the Royal Ballet.

I have the most respect for Zach Woodlee. He is one of my favorite - and one of the most capable - choreographers out there right now.

The last time I had to make a career decision, I was 17. I could have gone to Ballet Theatre or National Ballet of Canada. There were options. But as I became exposed to the Robbins repertoire, I realized that there was a living genius in the house.

I think the inception of my interest in arts was when I was around 9 or 10 and I started dancing. I was really convinced that I was going to go to New York and be onstage in 'A Chorus Line.'

It became my first passion, the first thing I really fell in love with. I joined the Ralph Robinson Ballet company, and then went to New York and became a dancer. I thought I'd die before I did anything else.

Growing up, I was a dancer. I wanted to be a choreographer.

If I hadn't decided to be a fashion designer, I would have loved to be a Broadway showgirl or a Rockette!

I have very strong feelings about dance and how it's shot.