Savion Glover Quotes

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Savion Glover

Profession : Dancer

Birth : November 19, 1973

They're taking away the arts programmes in the schools, and that's a terrible thing.

Savion Glover

The spirituality of the dance, that's something that's evolved for me in the past ten years or so. I'm still trying to figure out where that's taking me.

Savion Glover

We need these figures who don't exactly go against the grain but create a new grain.

Savion Glover

I deal with more complex rhythmical patterns than a regular tap dancer. I even think in rhythms.

Savion Glover

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.

Savion Glover

It's as if my left heel is my bass drum and my right heel is the floor tom-tom. I can get snare out of my right toe by not putting it down on the floor hard, and, if I want cymbals, I land flat on both feet, full strength on the floor.

Savion Glover

I want to entertain, but I'm interested in a whole range of feelings.

Savion Glover

Every performance is different because I'm different; my mood is different.

Savion Glover

Other dances are like languages, like French or Spanish, but my steps are slang, and slang is always changing.

Savion Glover

I'm a basketball freak.

Savion Glover

The youth coming up is interested in dance now, and they're coming to the shows. That's a blessing for those of us who create.

Savion Glover

Great athletes last because they let the mental do all the work. What we do as hoofers is not so much a physical strain as everybody thinks. It's more of a mental stretch.

Savion Glover

When you find real jazz on the radio dial, it comes in all static-y. It's just like tap dancers. You have to go uptown to find the real hoofers. We only come to midtown if we're called upon.

Savion Glover

I go for a nice walk in my neighborhood and search for vinyl, old jazz, classics. Then I go home and listen to them.

Savion Glover

I'm continuing the educational process of getting people to accept dance as music.

Savion Glover

There's a tendency to think tap's had its day, but 'Happy Feet' kept us in the race. That penguin is our Shirley Temple.

Savion Glover

A tapper sticks to existing routines. Whereas hoofing... a hoofer pushes the art form.

Savion Glover

There's no dancer alive better than those of the 1950s and 1960s. It's only the energy that changes. Every now and then, someone like me comes along, and people say, 'Oh, this guy is this new thing.' But that's not so. There is no me without them. The tradition just goes on.

Savion Glover

What does genius mean? God has put us here specifically... every person has a job or journey to do. It's just a matter of finding what we're here to fulfill or execute. That's genius to me.

Savion Glover

I'm just blessed, man. I'm just happy to share my art form with everyone. That's cool.

Savion Glover