If you live in the elite world of dance, you find yourself in a world rife with racism. Let's face it..

To be who you are and become what you are capable of is the only goal worth living..

DeFrantz's study...is not the first book about the protean Ailey, who was born in hardscrabble Texas in 1931 and died in 1989 after creating close to….

Everything in dancing is style, allusion, the essence of many thoughts and feelings. The abstraction of many moments..

I am trying to show the world that we are all human beings and that color is not important. What is important is the quality of our work..

It will take very sophisticated marketing to achieve our aim of bringing more black people into the theater..

We still spend more time chasing funds than we do in the studio in creative work..

One of the processes of your life is to constantly break down that inferiority, to constantly reaffirm that I Am Somebody..

Money is a never-ending problem..

Sometimes you feel bad about yourself when there's no reason to..

But the dance speaks to everyone. Otherwise it wouldn't work..

Racism tears down your insides so that no matter what you achieve, you're not quite up to snuff..

I wanted to explore black culture, and I wanted that culture to be a revelation..

I'm attracted to long-legged girls with long arms and a little head..

The creative process is not controlled by a switch you can simply turn on or off; it's with you all the time..

My lasting impression of Truman Capote is that he was a terribly gentle, terribly sensitive, and terribly sad man..

My feelings about myself have been terrible..

One of the worst things about racism is what it does to young people..

Making dances is an act of progress; it is an act of growth, an act of music, an act of teaching, an act of celebration, an act of joy..

No matter what you write or choreograph, you feel it is not enough..

I always want to have more dancers in my company..