89 Quotes by 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.

The word ‘suffering’ is not in my vocabulary.

I have been guilty of watching Westerns without acknowledging that Native Americans have gone through the same madness as African Americans. Isn’t it extraordinary that sometimes the most offended have not seen others being offended?

I’ve always felt that complement of opposites: body and soul, solitude and companionship, and in the dance studio, contraction and release, rise and fall.

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

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.

Dance is not endangered – it will always find a way to express itself.

The first time I started choreographing was in the dark, in my living room, with the lights completely out, to some popular music on the radio. I put the radio on full blast and I started moving. I didn’t know what it looked like. I didn’t want to see it... I had to start in the dark.