Quotes from Savion Glover

I love riding my ATV 450.

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.

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

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 more a percussion instrument than a dancer.

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.

When I wake up in the morning, I just go.

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.

I'm just blessed, man. I'm just happy to share my art form with everyone. That's cool.

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 did a production called 'Classical Savion,' where I did some Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Bach, Vivaldi, and all these great pieces.

Everything has to do with meditation. It's a conversation; it's a joy - it's everything.

I realized early on, I'm more interested in Baryshnikov than some dancer who wants to do a rock show with ballet.

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

The sound of tap is not 'clickety clickety tap tap,' this monotone thing. The sound of tap has depth. We want you to hear the different highs and lows, the bass, the trebles and the melodies, if you can.

Tap is still the central driving force of my life. I think and talk in dance.

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.

There are people who take tap class, do a tap dance. And then there are people who know the dance, who know why they take tap classes. Who know why they do 20 shuffles, or 50 shuffles, before they go on.

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.

Tap's foundation is jazz, just like hip-hop, so relating tap-dancing to rap is natural for me.

It wasn't until I did a musical revue in Paris in the 1980s called 'Black and Blue,' and met the great men and women responsible for the progress of tap dance, that my relationship with the dance really began.

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

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.'