Other dances are like languages, like French or Spanish, but my steps are slang, and slang is always changing.
Savion GloverRead
Just like a comedian has a certain joke or a jazz musician has a riff that they know will get the crowd, a tap dancer always has a step.
Interpretation
Artists have signature elements that resonate with their audience.
In this quote, Savion Glover emphasizes the importance of signature styles or techniques in art forms such as comedy and music. Just as a comedian relies on a familiar joke or a jazz musician uses a well-known riff to engage their audience, a tap dancer employs distinctive steps that highlight their unique expression and connect with the crowd, showcasing the value of consistency in artistic performance.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a workshop on artistic expression.
Other dances are like languages, like French or Spanish, but my steps are slang, and slang is always changing.
For me, the importance in learning about the dance is using it as a voice. It's not about a step, it's about a way to express oneself.
There are many different styles of, and approaches to, tap. My own leans towards a more intellectual view: tap dancing not just for the sake of entertainment but to educate and spark emotion.
I can produce any instrument, any sound that I can imagine; it may be percussive to the audience, but in my mind it may be a piano, a melody, or a tuba, or a harp, or a harmonica. My mission is to allow people to hear the dance in its purity and up against any other type of sound or music.
I'm happy that people think of me as the greatest tap-dancer that ever lived. But it's just a rumor. Because the greatest dancer that ever lived knows everything, and I don't. I'm still learning. I still have a lot of work to do.
My mom couldn't afford dance shoes, so she put me in these old cowboy boots with a hard bottom so I could get some sound out. I used them for seven months. When I finally got real tap shoes, I was nervous. I kept moving my feet, thinking, 'Oh, so this is how it's supposed to sound.'
The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and discover one's usefulness.
Let's face it, writing is hell.
I am performing this role of the artist and this role of the 'negress' coming into a white-box institution. It's kind of a self-appointed role: the self-designated negress.
I was very intimidated by the visual effects world. But I began to realize that you don't have to know everything. You have to be able to talk about story.
Producing a series is like being Lewis and Clark: You know where you're going, you just don't know how you're going to get there. When people say, 'You should create a bible for your show,' I say, 'You don't want a bible. It'll prevent you from making discoveries along the way.' And that's what happened on 'The X-Files.'
There is a word, in a verb, something sacred which forbids us from using it recklessly. To handle a language cunningly is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery.
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