Justin Peck Quotes

For me, the choreography always comes from the music.

I'm trying to create ballets that I would enjoy seeing.

Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays.

The ballet embodies the notes of music. And sometimes you almost feel like you can see the notes dance up there on the stage.

I had certain physical limitations that made me change the choreography for myself or made me more interested in choreography only rather than dancing. I have never been a person who wanted to just dance. I have always been interested in developing for other people.

I love working with Alicia Keys, because it's not just the ability to do the dance to me; I think it's the ability to interpret it that excites me the most.

I would love to compose something for dance before I kick the bucket, and I'm not closed-minded about the dance, or the dance company. I would really just love to collaborate on that.

I would love to compose something for dance before I kick the bucket, and I'm not closed-minded about the dance, or the dance company.

Choreography is mentally draining, but there's a pleasure in getting into the studio with the dancers and the music.

'Entity' is not about science. The process behind it may dictate the nature of the piece, but it's not like a dance about Einstein where I'm trying to convert his ideas into movement and communicate that to an audience.

I love the way in which I make up dances. It's a complicated way and the product is usually clear. Clear and simple. I don't need everybody to know that there are all of these fabulous things going on. If you CAN see it, that's wonderful.

Then came the choreography... the impact of music and choreography tends to really emphasize an overall feeling of what you really want out of the program.

I've made storylines through dance to complement the music. It's all about enhancing the singing and acting. It's been an amazing learning curve for me.

I've always been interested in dance and want to be a trained contemporary dancer.

It isn't easy to create a dance show, and it's different from choreographing for films... You need a lot of stamina and practice.

I've always thought of the process of creating ballets as being this kind of team effort. It's not like being a painter, where you have your paint, and you have canvas, and you just go at it. I'm working with these living, breathing, functioning human beings, and they have their own thoughts and ideas about what works well movement-wise.

When I would create a dance, I wouldn't have the luxury that ballet people do when they take a piece of music and impose a dance upon it. What we did in motion pictures was have a song and within that song try to elaborate. My usual method was to do what a writer does: get a plot.

Wayne McGregor's 'Dyad 1929' is a good example of this capable British choreographer's work.

Honestly, I am so ignorant of how dance works that I can't even imagine a story that you would want to tell through movement.

Dance has been a big passion for me.

In chamber music, the audience can hear each instrument and understand (and feel) what the composer and the musicians have in mind as they play.

It's one of my strongest dance pieces - having just done Play Without Words which was veering away from a lot of dance - I thought it would be nice to go back to something with almost the most dance I'd done.

I think I just have this need to be a storyteller. That's why I wasn't a great dancer - I couldn't articulate a story. I was a better choreographer. I have the need to to just express myself in that way. I can't explain it.

I was a late bloomer, but I had a career as a contemporary dancer before that, so I had some kind of connection to this world. But I was always a little more in love with the drama of dancing than the aesthetics, so I thought, 'Why don't you give it a chance if you think you can do it a little different?'

There's no point pretending that all of Martha Graham's pieces are equally strong.