Alvin Ailey Dance Quotations

Dance is for everybody. I believe that the dance came from the people and that it should always be delivered back to the people.

Choreography is mentally draining, but there's a pleasure in getting into the studio with the dancers and the music.

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

I always want to have more dancers in my company.

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

My dancers must be able to do anything, and I don't care if they are black or white or purple or green. I want to help show my people how beautiful they are. I want to hold up the mirror to my audience that says this is the way people can be, this is how open people can be.

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

Its roots are in American Negro culture, which is part of the whole country's heritage, ... But the dance speaks to everyone. ... Otherwise it wouldn't work.