Inspiring quotes for the dancer, part 2

Dancer tying shoes. Photo: C. Beers.

Part 2 in the series of Inspiring Quotes deals with practicing, whether you are a dancer, writer, painter, musician, or athlete.  The sources are as diverse as Michelangelo and Coach Vince Lombardi. I hope these quotes will inspire you to work hard at your craft, whatever your passion may be.

On Practicing

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit. – Chinese fortune cookie

Pay attention to the phrasing of every step, even of the exercises you practice daily. Each has a beginning, a development, climax, and decrescendo–the release is as important as the start or the highest point of effort. Finish through. Don’t just let go when the hardest part has been achieved. Try to consider the step as a whole, a long curve, and sustain throughout. – Agnes de Mille, To a Young Dancer

Coach Vince Lombardi began each season with the same speech to his team, holding the pigskin in his hands: “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

Fundamentals win it. Football is two things: it’s blocking and it’s tackling. I don’t care anything about formation or new offenses or tricks on defense. If you block and tackle better than the team you’re playing, you’ll win. – Coach Lombardi

You teach discipline by doing it over and over, by repetition and rote, especially in a game like football when you have very little time to decide what you are going to do. So what you do is react almost instinctively, naturally. You have done it so many times, over and over again. – Coach Lombardi

I believe a man should be on time, not a minute late, not ten seconds late . . . I believe that a man who’s late for meetings or for the bus won’t run his pass routes right. He’ll be sloppy. – Coach Lombardi

All he [Coach Lombardi] wanted from you was perfection. – Jim Taylor, Fullback, Green Bay Packers

Why do I keep practicing? Friends who aren’t involved in ballet ask me, “Are you still practicing? Don’t you have it yet?” You would think that if you keep practicing, you’ve got it. But it’s constantly working the body, trying to use it as a tool of expression. – Julie Kent, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord. . . . – Colossians 3:23 NIV, the Bible

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. – I Timothy 4:15 NIV, the Bible

Nobody ever mastered any skill except through intense, persistent and intelligent practice. – Norman Vincent Peale

Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily. – Johann Christoph von Schiller

Assume in your imagination it is already yours, the goal you aspire to have; enter into the part enthusiastically, live the character just as does the great actor absorb the character he plays. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish. – Michelangelo

Inspiring quotes for the dancer

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