Quotes from Savion Glover

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

There's a whole new generation who know about tap dancing thanks to 'Happy Feet.'

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.

I want tap to be something danced in arenas. Sort of like a rock group. Other art forms happen every night. Take theater, opera; there's always opera happening every night.

Movie making is such a long process, and they only use that one take, although you do it over and over about 30 times. Live theatre is that one time and one time only.

I was always looking at footage of dancers from Nicholas Brothers to Ralph Brown to Sand Man to Miller Brothers and Lois, and I grew up looking at old footage.

I want to entertain, but I'm interested in a whole range of feelings.

I don't think I'm a genius. Not yet.

My style is raw; my style is '95. My style is what I live. My style is my story.

I've changed my whole angle for dance. I'm moving towards moving back rather than hanging out with my peers. I'm reaching back to older dudes for a second.

We need these figures who don't exactly go against the grain but create a new grain.

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

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.

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.

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.

Whatever you do, dancing or whatever, you got to hit. Don't sleep on it. Just hit.

The magician has to know what the explanation for his magic is.

I don't like being too serious. I'm the type of person that, if the mike isn't in the right place when I go on, I just move it. Other people, they'll be all frantic. I'm more relaxed.

I'm inspired by breath, by the human body - by so many things.

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

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 used to think I had this responsibility to carry on this tradition. Now I just feel like I have to keep the dance out there, keep it in the public eye.

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.

I've never looked at what I do as show business, I guess, because of my connection to the art and how I was introduced to the dance.