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Some of My Favorite Tap Dance Quotes

There are pages and pages of quotes for dancers out there, but fewer focused entirely on tap dancing and the joy of tap. So, here are some of my personal favorite tap dance quotes:

I'm going to tap until I can't: I'll be so old, all I can do is walk out from the wings to stage center. But I'll be there. ~ Gregory Hines

I'm basically a hoofer, a tap dancer. I was always very good from the waist down, moving with the feet... I became what's known as a total dancer, using the entire body in order to express what you want to express in tap dancing and line. ~ Donald O'Connor 

Tap is still the central driving force of my life. I think and talk in dance. ~ Savion Glover 




Once you're on stage you can't go back, even when things go wrong people expect you to stay there and entertain them. When all else fails, you've got to try tap dancing. ~ Angus Young

When I first saw tap dancing, I immediately got it: the righteousness of being able to make so much noise with your feet! ~ Shalom Harlow

I think 'Tap Dogs' has lasted so long because people have a natural interest in tap dancing. This form of dancing can't be dated, it's such an intriguing form of dance because the feet are also an an instrument. ~ Adam Garcia

My dream role would be anything where I get to tap dance. ~ Dule Hill

There's a tendency to think tap's had its day, but 'Happy Feet' kept us in the race. That penguin is our Shirley Temple. ~ Savion Glover

I'm a tap dancer. Once you're a tap dancer, you're always a tap dancer. ~ Dule Hill


Tap dancing is all about the feet; you put your head down and don't really engage with anything but the rhythm in your head. ~ Jamie Bell 


I liked tap, because I liked hearing the results of my movements. ~ Suzanne Farrell

Tap dancers find it very difficult to do anything other than tap if that is all they have been trained in because, again, it's a whole different ballgame that you're constantly working on - bent legs, loose ankles - which you cannot afford to do when you're doing jumps or anything else. ~ Nigel Lythgoe

There are people who take tap class, do a tap dance. And then there are people who know the dance, who know why they take tap classes. Who know why they do 20 shuffles, or 50 shuffles, before they go on. ~ Savion Glover

 All you need is a pair of tap shoes to be part of this community. ~ Gregory Hines


Happy tapping!



Want to learn to tap dance? Christa Terry teaches kid, teen, and adult tap classes at Dance Enthusiasm in Salem, MA! More info on her upcoming summer schedule: http://www.danceenthusiasm.org/summer/
Whether you've never put on a pair of tap shoes or you want to get back into tap dancing, whether you're 8 or 80, Christa knows you can do it!  

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