For the Indian,dance is a personal form of prayer. When the Eagle Dancer puts on his costume,when he begins to dance to the music,he doesn't simply perform it; he actually becomes the eagle itself. The dancer is virtually inseparable from the dance.
Jamake HighwaterWe've reached a point where we are not a very empathetic people, and art without empathy is art without an audience. My basic viewpoint is that without art we're alone.
Jamake HighwaterWhat dance achieves, what play and sex achieve are the same thing that poetry achieves. They transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Jamake HighwaterWhite performances were always dull in comparison to the astonishing expressiveness of Black dancers. Behind the white person's inarticulate body were centuries of condemnation of dancing on religious grounds.
Jamake Highwater