I'm still growing, still learning. I'm still open and vulnerable enough to know there's much more to be taught to me and learned by me. I hope I don't reach my pinnacle on this earth where I think I know it all.
Savion Glover
Tap dancing is like... it's equivalent to music, not only for the African American community, but also for the world. Tap dancing is like language; it's like air: it's like everything else that we need in order to survive. I'm blessed and honored to be knowledgeable of the art form and to be a part of the art form.
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.
Authenticity is the most important thing. You have to know where it all comes from, study who pioneered it.
When you think about John Coltrane, in my opinion - and I think I share this opinion with a lot of people - his approach to music changed other people's approach to music.
I'm inspired by breath, by the human body - by so many things.
When I wake up in the morning, I just go.
Every performance is different because I'm different; my mood is different.
When you find real jazz on the radio dial, it comes in all static-y. It's just like tap dancers. You have to go uptown to find the real hoofers. We only come to midtown if we're called upon.
The spirituality of the dance, that's something that's evolved for me in the past ten years or so. I'm still trying to figure out where that's taking me.
What I'm trying to do is bring young people into doing tap so that the art form will keep going.
I am realizing and accepting my role as a tap dancer in this world is not only to tap dance for the sake of performance, but through tap dance be able to share and spread a message and congregate with people I would not necessarily be with had it not been for dance.
I actually wanted to be a fireman when I was younger.
I don't really care what the visual is looking like. I've gotten away from - not shenanigans, but spectacle.
I want to entertain, but I'm interested in a whole range of feelings.
We need these figures who don't exactly go against the grain but create a new grain.
The Nicholas Brothers were the best tap-dancers. I'm not talking about their flash-dancing, I'm talking about tap-dancing. They were really saying something with their feet.
It's as if my left heel is my bass drum and my right heel is the floor tom-tom. I can get snare out of my right toe by not putting it down on the floor hard, and, if I want cymbals, I land flat on both feet, full strength on the floor.
They're taking away the arts programmes in the schools, and that's a terrible thing.
I grew up watching Gregory Hines banging out rhythms like drum beats, and Jimmy Slyde dancing these melodies, you know, bop-bah-be-do-bap, not just tap-tap-tap. Everyone else was dancing in monotone, but I could hear the hoofers in stereo, and they influenced me to have this musical approach towards tap.
When Puffy asked me to do the video, I said yes. Cuz it's all about the Benjamins!
I'm thankful I am able to continue to share the joy and the inspiration tap brings.
I used to think I could save tap. But tap was here way before I was, and it's going to be here after I'm gone.
They all come from the street - tap, jazz and flamenco. And the streets are always changing. If it comes from the streets, change is the only thing that's consistent.
Other dances are like languages, like French or Spanish, but my steps are slang, and slang is always changing.
I never really stop and think about should I put my hat on this way or that, not thinking that little JoJo down the street would be copying that. I'm more conscious about it now and tell the kids that it's not about the shoes or what kind of shoes... it's all about the dance.
What does genius mean? God has put us here specifically... every person has a job or journey to do. It's just a matter of finding what we're here to fulfill or execute. That's genius to me.
My mom always had me and my brother watching old Fred Astaire movies.
There's no dancer alive better than those of the 1950s and 1960s. It's only the energy that changes. Every now and then, someone like me comes along, and people say, 'Oh, this guy is this new thing.' But that's not so. There is no me without them. The tradition just goes on.
Tap's foundation is jazz, just like hip-hop, so relating tap-dancing to rap is natural for me.
There's a whole new generation who know about tap dancing thanks to 'Happy Feet.'
A tapper sticks to existing routines. Whereas hoofing... a hoofer pushes the art form.
You can go to see a singer and love the show, but you don't need to know all the songs. What you want to do when you leave is go and find out more about the music.
Great athletes last because they let the mental do all the work. What we do as hoofers is not so much a physical strain as everybody thinks. It's more of a mental stretch.
What we're looking for at my school is intellectuals. People who want to talk about the art and be knowledgeable about it. People who want to know the history. Not everybody needs to be performing.
I don't deal in terminology, I deal with expressions: colors, shapes, tones, characteristics.
I'm committed to the purity of my art form.
The youth coming up is interested in dance now, and they're coming to the shows. That's a blessing for those of us who create.
I want to share what I have, and I'd rather share it with people that are a little bit more open-minded.
I'm always inspired by music, things of that nature. Just life in general. I'm happy to be waking up and having another chance at it.
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.'
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.
I realized early on, I'm more interested in Baryshnikov than some dancer who wants to do a rock show with ballet.
I like to be around dancers who are totally committed to the art form, totally committed to the men and women around them.
I come from a long line of people who express themselves through the dance. I come from a long line of people who create music through their feet.
I was first introduced to dancing through the TV: I remember watching ballet, jazz and ballroom dancing when I was very little. But I felt no connection with it whatsoever: it was just like watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
I try new stuff every time I perform. I have steps I do that I know are definite, and stuff I can make up right then and there and then forget.
Tap is still the central driving force of my life. I think and talk in dance.
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.
I'm continuing the educational process of getting people to accept dance as music.
