A Quote by Savion Glover

What I'm trying to do is bring young people into doing tap so that the art form will keep going. — © Savion Glover
What I'm trying to do is bring young people into doing tap so that the art form will keep going.
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.
Trying to be a professional dancer, paying my rent by posing nude for art classes, staring at people staring at me naked. Daring them to think of me as anything but a form they were trying to capture with their pencils and charcoal. I was defiant. Hell-bent on surviving. On making it. But it was hard and it was lonely, and I had to dare myself every day to keep going.
I'm just doing the best I can now to keep this going... trying to grow up and remain young at the same time.
There are always going to be people that are judgmental that are going to say, 'Well, he was an actor first, so he doesn't have the right to be a musician,' or, 'I know him as this, so therefore I will never accept him as that.' I can't change those people. I can only be myself. And I can only keep making art. I can only do the best that I can. I am not going to spend my life trying to silence the critics. I'm going to do what I'm passionate about and follow my dreams.
I always want to be doing both to travel as a teacher and lecturer, and to be a musician. I think in this generation institutionalizing the art form and spreading it to the younger generation through education is really important for all artists to have some hand in. Right now in popular culture and the mainstream, it's not a big part at all. I think education by young artists talking to young people, not just older people talking to young people, it gives an experience never felt before. I think over the years it will do a lot for the music.
I think 'Tap Dogs' has lasted so long because people have a natural interest in tap dancing. This form of dancing can't be dated, it's such an intriguing form of dance because the feet are also an an instrument.
I just keep trying and failing and I will continue to keep trying to see what I can do to try to keep people engaged in the conversation about our Lord and Savior, man. Really that's all I'm trying to do.
If I was a young director starting off, there's so many tools at your disposal now to do things relatively inexpensively that it's a great time to learn your chops and do some cool music videos. If I started all over again, I'd still be doing music videos, I'd just be doing them very differently. It's very difficult for me to do them now, but for young kids out there that love music and want to tackle a different art form - and I do think music video is an art form - that's a very cool thing to do.
Doing and making positive programming for young people is so important to me, and I will keep doing it.
I'm going to keep doing the comedy and the art that I do. I'm going to keep uplifting marginalized voices, and I think that's my place to do that.
Probably the biggest temptation that young writers face is to be entertaining, to show your bag of tricks and do a bit of tap dancing. I read a lot of things, and I keep seeing this brocade of voice where someone is trying to be too pally with you or ingratiating on the page.
I'm not going to try to be too young because at the end of the day, I'm not 20 anymore. I don't want to sound corny or look corny doing young things. All the stuff that the kids are doing, that's not my place. I believe that everyone followed me back then, they're still here. That's who I'm trying to talk to and relate to. All the trap music and all of that, it's great but I can't do that. I'm going to stay vintage Ginuwine and stay at the place that got me here. That's what people want.
I think the problem with people, as they start to mature, they say, 'Rap is a young man's game,' and they keep trying to make young songs. But you don't know the slang - it changes every day, and you're just visiting. So you're trying to be something you're not, and the audience doesn't buy into that.
I started doing roles and working with people that I really respected and became passionate about the art form of acting. And I'm still trying to figure it out. Still learning.
I wanted to open the dialogue about race in ballet and bring more people in. It's just beautiful to see the interest that has exploded for such an incredible art form that I will forever be grateful to!
Most young actors, that's all they're trying to do: Get better at acting and be able to keep doing it. And that doesn't work out for most people.
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