Berlin Irving 1888-1989
Carefree ‘Change Partners'
Must you dance ev'ry dance
With the same fortunate man?
You have danced with him since the music began.
Won't you change partners and dance with me?
Burns Robert 1759-1796
‘The Deil's awa wi' th'Exciseman'
There's threesome reels, there's foursome reels,
There's hornpipes and strathspeys, man
But the ae best dance e'er cam to the land
Was, the deil's awa wi' th'Exciseman.
Byron Lord 1788-1824
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure
meet
To chase the glowing Hours with flying, feet.
Dowson Ernest 1867-1900
„Non Sum Qualis Eram"
I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,
Flung roses, roses, riotously, with the throng,
Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind;
But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,
Yea, all the time, because the dance was long:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.
Marceau Marcel 1923-
Dance is in the air ... Mime is on the floor.
Marquis Don 1878-1937
archy and mehitabel
but wotthehell wotthehell
oh I should worry and fret
death and I will coquette
there's dance in the old dame yet
toujours gai toujours gai.
Pope Alexander 1688-1744
An Essay on Criticism
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.
„Tis not enough no harshness gives offence,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
Pope Alexander 1688-1744
Imitations of Horace
Not to go back, is somewhat to advance,
And men must walk at least before they dance.
Powell Anthony 1905-
(after the painting by Nicolas Poussin)
A dance to the music of time.
Shawn Ted 1891-1972
Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are
the stuff of which it is made.
Sitwell Sir Osbert 1892-1969
‘On the Coast of Coromandel'
On the coast of Coromandel
Dance they to the tunes of Handel.
Yeats William Butler 1865-1939
‘The Spur'
You think it horrible that lust and rage
Should dance attendance upon my old age;
They were not such a plague when I was young.
Lear Edward 1812-1888
‘The Owl and the Pussy-Cat'
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon.
Merrill James
,‚Museum Piece"
The good grey guardians of art
Patrol the halls on spongy shoes,
Impartially protective, though
Perhaps suspicious of Toulouse.
Here dozes one against the wall,
Disposed upon a funeral chair.
A Degas dancer pirouettes
Upon the parting of his hair.
Valéry Paul 1871-1945
A businessman is a hybrid of a dancer and a calculator.
Yeats William Butler 1865-1939
‘Among School Children'
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
Lemm Leesa
(testifying before an industrial tribunal)
Two slow dances do not constitute a love affair.
Wordsworth William 1770-1850
‘I wandered lonely as a cloud'
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Berlin Irving 1888-1989
Top Hat ‘Cheek-to-Cheek'
Heaven - I'm Heaven - And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak;
And I seem to find the happiness I seek
When we're out together dancing cheek-to-cheek.
Davies Sir John 1569-1626
„Orchestra, or a Poem of Dancing"
This wondrous miracle did Love devise,
For dancing is love's proper exercise.
Salvandy Comte de 1795-1856
(just before the revolution)
We are dancing on a volcano.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Romeo and Juliet
You and I are past our dancing days.
Shaw George Bernard 1856-1950
Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.