TILER PECK
Principal Dancer
New York City Ballet
Dance with and from the heart. By feeling the music deep in your bones use the body as an extension of what you hear and feel. Dancing is the best way to express oneself—fulfilling body and soul.
ANDREA LODICO
Manager and Producer
Keigwin + Company
Move as an expression of your heart’s passion, your body’s sense of freedom, your spirit’s connection. Now, you’re dancing. Joyful or poignant, expansive or subtle, choreographed or not, onstage or alone in your kitchen, accompanied by an orchestra, your favorite tune, or simply your own heartbeat—your dance is a celebration of what is uniquely you.
JOSÉ LIMÓN (1908–1972)
Dancer and Choreographer
Founder of Limón Dance Company
A gesture, be it a leap, turn, run, fall, or walk, is only as beautiful, as powerful, as eloquent as its inner source… Purify, magnify, and make noble that source. You stand naked and revealed. Who are you? What are you? What do you want to be? What is your spiritual caliber?
DENYS DROZDYUK
Artistic Director
DNA Ballroom
Your soul was gifted by nature and a higher power. Attune to it by eliminating all the unnecessary limiting information. By searching for freedom of the mind and freedom of the soul, notice doubts that sneak themselves in and tell them to wait outside. Leave no room for them. Become aware of your breathing and wake the imagination. Warm up the body and become excited about the magic of dance. And then, dance.
JANET JOHNSON
Executive and Artistic Director
Ormao Dance Company
Dance in all the nooks, crannies, and wide-open spaces of life. As a dancer, maintain your curiosity about the human body and its limitless ways of moving through your own experiences, observing other humans and everything in nature. Seek out all the nuances of human interactions, the commonalities, and the broad differences in how we navigate relationships. This includes relationships with self, others, and our environment. Music can envelop and inspire movement, whether it be alone in the dark or in the bright sunshine with others. Dance is life!
GEORGE BALANCHINE (1904–1983)
Choreographer
Co-Founder of New York City Ballet
One is born to be a dancer. No teacher can work miracles, nor will years of training make a good dancer of an untalented pupil. One may be able to acquire a certain technical facility, but no one can ever “acquire an exceptional talent.” I have never prided myself on having an unusually gifted pupil. A Pavlova is no one’s pupil but God’s.
SILAS FARLEY
Artist in Residence
Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University
Let your love for the movement come through. Take devotional delight in the details. Dance inside the music.
HUI CHA POOS
Dancer and Choreographer
Founder of RACE Dance Collective
There are no rules…just turn the music on, close your eyes, and let your body move.
MARTHA GRAHAM (1894–1991)
Dancer and Choreographer
Founder of Martha Graham Dance Company
Pull, pull on the contraction. Do not cave in. And the contraction is not a position. It is a movement into something. It is like a pebble thrown into the water, which makes rippling circles when it hits the water. The contraction moves.
STEFANIE BATTEN BLAND
Artistic Director
Company SBB
How to dance? Be, live, walk, run, stand still, look up, sit down, skip on your way to the subway, raise your hand and say hi, turn around yourself on the bus, walk in slow motion across the street, stop traffic, look at someone and smile. Dance is life.