Judith Jamison Quotes

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Judith Jamison

Profession : Dancer

Birth : May 10, 1943

Dancing is bigger than the physical body. Think bigger than that. When you extend your arm, it doesn't stop at the end of your fingers, because you're dancing bigger than that. You're dancing spirit.

Judith Jamison

People don't remember me for how high my legs went, even though they went up very high, and how many pirouettes I did. They don't remember me for that. They remember me and any other dancer because something touched them inside. It's an indelible memory on the heart and in the mind.

Judith Jamison

You have to dance unencumbered. There's no other way to move. The idea of dance is freedom. It is not exclusiveness, it's inclusiveness.

Judith Jamison

The world is full of ways for people to dance. Concert dance doesn't get its due.

Judith Jamison

I believe in being prepared. I'm going to say that. Pray, prepare, proceed.

Judith Jamison

People come to see beauty, and I dance to give it to them.

Judith Jamison

At 10, I could walk down the street and see over everybody's head. I don't remember being little or having to look up at people. I think I was born 5 feet 10. It's not that I felt especially tall. I was wondering when everybody else was going to catch up.

Judith Jamison

We can go on talking about racism and who treated whom badly, but what are you going to do about it? Are you going to wallow in that or are you going to create your own agenda?

Judith Jamison

I've been in a competitive situation almost all my life. I've been having a competition with myself and trying to be the best I could be.

Judith Jamison

I want to know who you are as a person, and then I want you to develop as a whole human being.

Judith Jamison

I've danced all over the world, and people are people. We cannot cut off from each other in life. In order to lead, you can't do that.

Judith Jamison

Concert dance is the hardest kind of dance. We tour constantly, around the world, year in and year out. It just doesn't work for everybody. It's the lifestyle, it's the stamina, it's the love, it's the dedication, it's the commitment, it's all those words.

Judith Jamison

I haven't had a family, but I don't think of that as a sacrifice: my dancers are my family.

Judith Jamison

I was a protege; by the age of 10, I was studying with ballet choreographer Anthony Tudor in a class of adults.

Judith Jamison

The word 'suffering' is not in my vocabulary.

Judith Jamison

We're dancing from here, from inside, not from outside. You could look at anybody throwing their leg and kick their leg up and a million pirouettes and do all kinds of tricks and stuff like that. But that's not what dance is really about.

Judith Jamison

I believe God has a path for me. He's always had a path for me, and I've always been in the right place at the right time - not because of my efforts, but because of my preparation and because of the guides that I have, the mentors that I have, the spiritual walkers that I've had all my life.

Judith Jamison

I could say now at 66, yeah, I was a fabulous dancer. I was really terrific, you know. But I was always present. I was present. I was supposed to be where I was supposed to be at the time I was supposed to be.

Judith Jamison

If people all over the world, year after year, request that you do 'Revelations,' you do 'Revelations.'

Judith Jamison

One thing I cannot stand is when people say, 'Hi, how are you?' and they don't wait to hear how I am. They're just going through the motions. I say to people: 'Keep it human. Keep it alive. Don't turn into a robot.' You have to hear what the other person is saying clearly.

Judith Jamison