B
A dance is a measured pace, as a verse is a measured speech.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher
A violinist had a violin, a painter his palette. All I had was myself. I was the instrument that I must care for.
Josephine Baker (1906-1975), USA dancer
Paul Colin, Joséphine Baker
color, 1927, Le tumulte noir. Paris, 1927, "Josephine Baker and La Revue Nègre." Paul Colin's lithographs
I don't want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance.
George Balanchine (1904-1983), Georgian choreographer
Dance is music made visible.
George Balanchine (1904-1983),
Georgian choreographer
See the music; hear the dance.
George Balanchine (1904-1983),
Georgian choreographer
First comes the sweat. Then comes the beauty if you're very lucky and have said your prayers.
George Balanchine (1904-1983),
Georgian choreographer
The mirror is not you. The mirror is you looking at yourself.
George Balanchine (1904-1983),
Georgian choreographer
Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays.
George Balanchine (1904-1983),
Georgian choreographer
Someone once said that dancers work just as hard as policeman, always alert, always tense, but see, policeman don't have to be beautiful at the same time.
George Balanchine (1904-1983),
Georgian choreographer
You haven't got anything to dance about until you're over thirty-five anyway.
Bert Balladine (1927-2009)
USA choreographer
Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
Dave Barry (1927-2009)
USA choreographer
Ladies! Dance like a peacock, not a feather duster!
Dave Barry (1927-2009)
USA choreographer
The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.
Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948-)
Latvian dancer
I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.
Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948-)
Latvian dancer
No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.
Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948-)
Latvian dancer
Dancing can reveal all the mystery that music conceals.
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
French poet
There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.
Vicki Baum (1888-1960)
Austrian writer
You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing.
Sir Arnold Bax (1883-1953)
English composer quoting a 'sympathetic Scotsman', 1943
Dance first. Think later. It's the natural order.
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)
Irish writer
Dance, v.i. To leap about to the sound of tittering music, preferably with arms about your neighbor's wife or daughter. There are many kinds of dances, but all those requiring the participation of the two sexes have two characteristics in common: they are conspicuously innocent, and warmly loved by the vicious.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
USA writer in "The Devil's Dictionary"
A correct execution of an adagio is the nec plus ultra of our art; and I look on it as the touch-stone of the dancer.
Carlo Blasis (1797-1878)
Italian dance theoretician
The dancer gradually introduces all that his art comprises.
Carlo Blasis (1797-1878)
Italian dance theoretician
Ballet is not technique but a way of expression that comes more closely to the inner language of man than any other.
George Sava alias George Borodin (1903-1996)
British writer
It is not so much upon the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progresses and skill depend.
Auguste Bournonville (1805-1879)
Danish choreographer
I learned to act by watching Martha Graham dance, and I learned to dance by watching Charlie Chaplin act.
Louise Brooks (1906-1985)
USA dancer and actress
All there is to be said for work compared to dance is that the latter is so much easier.
Heywood Broun (1888-1939)
USA journalist
All there is to be said for work compared to dance is that the latter is so much easier.
Heywood Broun (1888-1939)
USA journalist
Any problem in the world can be solved by dancing.
James Brown (1933-2006)
USA singer
A child sings before it speaks, dances almost before it walks, music is with us from the beginning.
Pamela Brown (1983-)
USA television reporter
Dance can give the inarticulate a voice
Pamela Brown (1983-)
USA television reporter
The human animal dances wildest on the edge of the grave.
Rita Mae Brown (1944-)
USA writer
Dance every performance as if it were your last.
Erik Bruhn (1928-1986)
Danish ballet choreographer
The call to dance is a response to a primitive urge to rhythmic motion. It is an unavoidable internal rhythm of life.
Dorothy C. Buck (1948-)
USA ballet dancer and writer
In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873)
English novelist
To shake your rump is to be environmentally aware.
David Byrne (1952)
USA rock musician
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet.
George Gordon Lord Byron (1788-1824)
British poet In: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage