Menu

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Savion Glover Quotes

A tapper sticks to existing routines. Whereas hoofing… a hoofer pushes the art form.

– Savion Glover

I’ve come to realize that people dance for reasons of their own.

– Savion Glover

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.

– Savion Glover

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.

– Savion Glover

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.

– Savion Glover

My personal style at this point in my life is more audio; it’s more driven on less visual and more musicality. But because of my upbringing, my fabulous mentors and teachers that I’ve had throughout my dance journey or career, I also possess a style that is of the past. It was just a matter of me reaching back.

– Savion Glover

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.

– Savion Glover

I don’t deal in terminology, I deal with expressions: colors, shapes, tones, characteristics.

– Savion Glover

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.

– Savion Glover

Every performance is different because I’m different; my mood is different.

– Savion Glover

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.

– Savion Glover

I’m thankful I am able to continue to share the joy and the inspiration tap brings.

– Savion Glover

I’m continuing the educational process of getting people to accept dance as music.

– Savion Glover

I like to be around dancers who are totally committed to the art form, totally committed to the men and women around them.

– Savion Glover

The connection of what I do to flamenco lies in the whole lament, whole cry, whole pouring back into the earth and giving energy back to the earth. It’s a cry and a celebration. That’s what music, sound, vibration should do. It should spark energy in someone.

– Savion Glover

I can hold a note, but that’s about it.

– Savion Glover

I don’t really care what the visual is looking like. I’ve gotten away from – not shenanigans, but spectacle.

– Savion Glover

I deal with more complex rhythmical patterns than a regular tap dancer. I even think in rhythms.

– Savion Glover

Everything has to do with meditation. It’s a conversation; it’s a joy – it’s everything.

– Savion Glover

Other dances are like languages, like French or Spanish, but my steps are slang, and slang is always changing.

– Savion Glover

I go for a nice walk in my neighborhood and search for vinyl, old jazz, classics. Then I go home and listen to them.

– Savion Glover

I like to express myself inside of the work that is given, and I let the dancers do the same.

– Savion Glover

I was very happy with the success of ‘Noise/Funk,’ but of course, there is a lot more that I have to say about the dance, about the history, about the people involved with the dance and their history.

– Savion Glover

Authenticity is the most important thing. You have to know where it all comes from, study who pioneered it.

– Savion Glover

I’m more a percussion instrument than a dancer.

– Savion Glover

Whatever you do, just learn about what you’re doing; get into it.

– Savion Glover

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.

– Savion Glover

If someone wants to be very tight about authenticity or ownership, it just sounds kind of competitive to me.

– Savion Glover

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.

– Savion Glover

I love riding my ATV 450.

– Savion Glover

- 1
- 2
- 3