Top 69 Quotes & Sayings by Chita Rivera

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Puerto Rican actress Chita Rivera.
Last updated on December 25, 2024.
Chita Rivera

Chita Rivera, is an American actress, singer and dancer best known for originating roles in Broadway musicals including Anita in West Side Story, Velma Kelly in Chicago, and the title role in Kiss of the Spider Woman. She is a ten-time Tony Award nominee and a three-time Tony Award recipient, including one for Lifetime Achievement. She is the first Latina and the first Latino American to receive a Kennedy Center Honor and is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

I'm an old-fashioned girl.
After about 15 minutes, you feel that you're winning them over.
You have to have the lows in your life so you can deal with them. — © Chita Rivera
You have to have the lows in your life so you can deal with them.
Somebody told me once I wasn't Latin enough, and that made me laugh.
Absolutely, I'll always be a dancer.
The show did go on, but came very close to not going on at all.
Theatre is immediate gratification.
I was busy welcoming a new experience. I had never done a movie before.
'Spiderwoman' was wonderful. I think that show is a very important piece of theatre.
I'd like to get the word out there, the word has to be spread.
You really have to be in touch with your soul and spirit and your imagination - it keeps you in shape, and it makes you like yourself a bit more.
I have to make this love affair believable enough. It's very European.
I've played American, Italian, Greek, French. I've been really lucky that way. — © Chita Rivera
I've played American, Italian, Greek, French. I've been really lucky that way.
I was from Washington, D.C., and then I came to New York and got the scholarship for the ballet.
When you're in a big theater, you want to reach the very top of the place. Up to the highest seat, so that each person feels like you're talking to them. There's really no difference when you're in a smaller place; you just don't overdo it. It becomes far more personal.
Beauty is not everything!
You take a plug and put it in a socket, and that's what the theatre is-it lights up right away. You speak, and they respond immediately.
I have been very lucky, I have only had one bad experience.
It's communication - that's what theatre is all about.
You always want to please your choreographer, director. Dancers are just that way.
Jerome Robbins, to me, is the genius of a lifetime.
I think Lin-Manuel deserves absolutely everything that he's getting. He is an extremely gifted guy, a very fine human being, and loves the theater. Loves it.
I'm not comfortable with just me, me, me. That's boring.
We're going to Puerto Rico, where we're gonna close. And we're so excited, we can't see straight.
I don't think you know how much you can do until you try.
You really never know what the next day brings you.
'Chicago' is all about precision.
The person who does that role better than anyone else is the person who should get that role, regardless of their background or heritage.
Why not travel, why not see the rest of the world, why not experience life? It's beautiful! Phenomenal!
I've always had a crazy sense of humor. So the ballet probably wouldn't have been enough for me. I had to clown around a little bit more.
Redheads have a lightness, a craziness, a kookiness. Think of Lucille Ball.
Southern California, they have been amazing. They're totally with us.
You can feel whether an audience is tightened up and pulled back. Of course the opposite is an audience like we've been having in LA, which is fabulous.
I've never been bored in live theater.
I have a very young outlook.
San Francisco has just blown us all away. I also understand Angels in America didn't do well there.
I just broke up all the furniture in the house. My mother had to get rid of me. So she put me in dance class.
You get the best out of people by allowing them to do their best work. — © Chita Rivera
You get the best out of people by allowing them to do their best work.
My hairdresser and I found ourselves shopping at Bloomingdale's with nothing to do for days.
Outside of my own home, England is my second home.
Cabaret is a much more up close and personal experience, which I enjoy very much. This is a tremendous difference to being in a large theatre, doing a book show, where there is more separation. But both have equal importance.
You have to be passionate about things in your life.
I'm very competitive. I do like to win.
I can tell you where my Tonys are. They're in a beautiful place in my living room, in a glass cabinet.
Mother never said to me, 'Stay out of trouble.' She didn't have to!
Many of the shows I danced in don't exist on film, but they do exist in the memories of those who were in the theater for that single moment in time. And nothing can replace that.
The spirit of dance is an amazing thing. When the body and the spirit meet, it's a good thing.
I love life. I love the live theater. — © Chita Rivera
I love life. I love the live theater.
For some of us, the Gypsy years can go on forever ... That isn't such a bad thing. When all is said and done, they're a lot of fun. The truth is, I liked being a Gypsy. It's who I was. And it's still a lot of who I am. Gypsy, it's a good word.
Looking back doesn't have to be painful.
It's important that the kids stay busy. It's important that they have something to focus on, and something that they feel good about.
American audiences are affected by what the English people think.
I love the theater because the theater is alive. The audience is right there.
I'm bugged because I can't believe I can't speak every language there is. But I feel I can when I sit and am with somebody, and I can dance for them. Because dance is dialogue without language.
I never like the way I look. I don't. I never look at myself.
Mother loved dance so much that she thought (ballerina) Margot Fonteyn should be the president.
I love to laugh, I love the joy of life, and I love sharing it.
My neighborhood was a great neighborhood; it was filled with all sorts of ethnic groups and things. So I grew up thinking I was a human being.
I am young in my energy because I really still believe that we can share who we are, and we can wipe off on each other. I see this huge tapestry when we're born, and this red blob that's your soul or your heart.
Theatre is immediate gratification
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