Donald O'Connor Quotes

When I first saw tap dancing, I immediately got it: the righteousness of being able to make so much noise with your feet!

I tap dance.

Tap dancing is all about the feet; you put your head down and don't really engage with anything but the rhythm in your head.

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.

We were tap-dancers but we put more style into it, more bodywork, instead of just footwork.

Tap dancing is something I love, and I've been working on it to get really good.

I'm the first one out on the dance floor. In college I had to take jazz, ballet and tap dancing, but, before that, it was just social.

I love the rhythm of tap dancing. It's sharp and quick. Plus, the sound is very appealing.

Tap's foundation is jazz, just like hip-hop, so relating tap-dancing to rap is natural for me.

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.

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.

I realize that I'm not a great dancer. I've given up the hip-shaking. I don't pelvic thrust anymore. Those were the beginning days of T. R. learning how to dance. But I love it, and I've taken a few choreography lessons. But other than that, I kinda just feel it, I guess.

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.

I was a tap dancer as a child, so I understand precision and repetition.

when dancing is right, the movement possesss a logic common to us all, an inevitability that takes it beyond the personal and egocentric and makes of it classical art.

As a dancer, I out-Fred the nimblest Astaire.

If I hear dance music, my body starts to move. Whatever the dance music is, I can't help it. With all that, I still felt, well, rock is a little higher art, but it wasn't. Right now, because I have so much experience with dance charts, I started to realize that it's incredible art. This is going to be known one day as high art.

Exactly the same with dancing, you can't dance until you've learnt steps, the things your feet can do.

I'm a tap dancer. Once you're a tap dancer, you're always a tap dancer. In 'After Midnight,' I get to dance, but I don't do a full tap number.

I think 'Tap Dogs' has lasted so long because people have a natural interest in tap dancing. This form of dancing can't be dated, it's such an intriguing form of dance because the feet are also an an instrument.

I'm a pretty decent tap dancer. I enjoy all types of dancing, actually.

I've been dancing my entire life. Jazz, hip hop, ballet. And then there's tap dancing. I love to tap.

I started with ballet and then my cousin Sarah introduced me to her tap teachers.

Rhythm is born in all of us. To be a desirable dancing partner, you don't have to do all the intricate fancy steps that happen to be in vogue. All you have to do is be a good average dancer, and anybody who spends the time and effort can accomplish this.

Point a light at me, and I'll start tap dancing.