It takes time to get a dance right, to create something memorable.
Fred AstaireRead
For ballroom dancing, remember that your partners have their own distinctive styles also. Cultivate flexibility. Be able to adapt your style to that of your partner. In doing so, you are not surrendering your individuality, but blending it with that of your partner.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Embrace the unique styles of others while maintaining your individuality in partnership.
This quote emphasizes the importance of flexibility and adaptability in relationships, particularly in the context of partnership, such as in ballroom dancing. It suggests that while it is crucial to embrace and learn from the distinctive styles of others, one should not lose their own identity; instead, they should blend their individuality with that of their partners to create harmony.
Themes
FlexibilityAdaptabilityPartnershipIndividualityHarmony
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about teamwork at a company retreat.
More from Fred Astaire
All quotes βSome people seem to think that good dancers are born, but all the good dancers I have known are taught or trained.
Fred AstaireRead
Can't act. Can't sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.
Fred AstaireRead
I have no desire to prove anything by dancing. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance. I just put my feet in the air and move them around.
Fred AstaireRead
I inherited the knowledge that sometimes (talents) not only skip a generation, but sometimes run screaming from it. Ironically, it was the singing non-ability that helped feed my love of laughter.
Fred AstaireRead
Either the camera will dance, or I will.
Fred AstaireRead
Similar quotes
Every so often I would look at my women friends who were happily married and didn't cook, and I would always find myself wondering how they did it. Would anyone love me if I couldn't cook? I always thought cooking was part of the package: Step right up, it's Rachel Samstat, she's bright, she's funny and she can cook!
Nora EphronRead
The essential relationship across American history between black people and white people is one of exploitation and one of plunder. This is not, you know, necessarily about, you know, whether you're a good person or not or whether you see black people, you know, on the street, and you're willing to shake their hands and be polite.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
Parents need to listen as much to their kids as they do to them: "The first duty of love is to listen."
Paul TillichRead
I don't think there should be anything that women are embarrassed to talk about in the 21st century, because for the last 100,000 years, men have said everything that's on their minds and described everything they have done.
Caitlin MoranRead
I grew up with my cousins, who were as close as brothers, and frankly, I didn't like what girls were expected to do. I liked horseback riding, playing football, going to rodeos. I wanted to be in jeans all the time, and I couldn't figure out why I was supposed to conform to a certain standard, so I didn't.
S. E. HintonRead
If he didn't care about you, you couldn't upset him.
Neil GaimanRead