Cool Stuff

This is a collection of videos and quotes which are about tango, dance, art, and life. Have fun!

Patsy Rodenburg on Second Circle

I think this is true of all art, of all moments of great interpersonal connection, and most certainly, of tango.

Dance is an important part of life.

"Socrates learned to dance when he was seventy because he felt that an essential part of himself had been neglected." ~ Source Unknown

Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music. ~ William Stafford

Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life. ~ Miller, Henry

Dancing is like dreaming with your feet! ~ Constanze

There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them. ~ Vicki Baum

It is never to late to be what you could have been ~ George Eliot

image of David and Danielle

"Tango is about being human together" ~ David

Makarova taking Class

You always keep getting better. A video of Makarova, one of the great ballarinas of our time, taking class.

"I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to to dance better than myself." ~ Baryshnikov

"God gives talent. Work transforms talent into genius." ~ Anna Pavlova

For me, Dance is a Blessed Experience

"Dancers are the athletes of God" ~ Einstein

"Where ever a dancer stands is holy ground." ~ Martha Graham

"To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful." ~ Agnes De Mille

"While I dance I can not judge, I can not hate, I can not separate myself from life. I can only be joyful and whole. This is why I dance." ~ Hans Bos

"Don't practice until you get it right, practice till you can't get it wrong." ~ Unknown

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... it's about learning to dance in the rain

Random Quotes

Basic dance--and I should qualify the word basic--is primarily concerned with motion. So immediately you will say but the basketball player is concerned with motion. That is so--but he is not concerned with it primarily. His action is a means towards an end beyond motion. In basic dance the motion is its own end--that is, it is concerned with nothing beyond itself. ~ Alwin Nikolais

How to be a Great Leader

How to be a great leader, by an amazing conductor, Bernard Hailink.

"Very good of you not to stop when there was this little omission ... life is full of little things ... it is the deadly sin of a conductor to show his discontent when he thinks it is the mistake of the player because there's always the good chance that it's the mistake of the conductor ... "

"That is a very important asset for a conductor. To have the right concentration. Not to be upset when things are going wrong. You are there not to criticize them, you are there to give them confidence."

A quote by Hector Zaraspe

"From my point of view, faith is everything. Art exalts the material, it's the food that man needs for the centuries. If the soul needs the heart to live, If God manifests in nature, then man manifests in art. The dancer turns his body into an instrument of art, interprets music with his being, he paints in the air, with the music that he carries in his soul."

Hector Zaraspe, coach to Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyv. Also, producer of Tango Passion.

On Waiting

By Itzhak_Perlman ... and it's as true of tango as of gypsy music.

"Wait until the sound (dance) comes out ... is finished. When you wait you say (feel) ... isn't this beautiful?"

A few Quotes about Tango

"There is more energy in passion, than in energy." ~ About Tango

"I believe that Tango has the potential to bring out the best in each of us, at least while in the embrace. We surrender our egos; leave prickly personality traits at the table; and cease to be CEOs, taxi drivers, engineers, unemployed. We replace all our externals with a purity of spirit, a generosity of kindness, splendid caring. And when these elements flow freely between partners, it is...the joy." ~ Johanna Copes

Odetta, singing "House of the Rising Sun"

The way that she is telling her story (and happens to be creating awesome music) is, we think, a great parallel for the way that we, when we dance, can tell our story. And, in the process, create beautiful dance.