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Racism tears down your insides so that no matter what you achieve, you're not quite up to snuff.

Alvin Ailey

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Alvin Ailey
Age: 58 †
Born: 1931
Born: January 5
Died: 1989
Died: December 1
Ballet Dancer
Choreographer
Alvin Ailey Jr.
Alvin Ailey Jr
Racism
Tears
Achieve
Quite
Matter
Insides
Snuff
Racist

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I always want to have more dancers in my company.
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I am trying to show the world that we are all human beings and that color is not important. What is important is the quality of our work.
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Lena Horne is the sweetest and most adorable woman in the world.
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No matter what you write or choreograph, you feel it is not enough.
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If you live in the elite world of dance, you find yourself in a world rife with racism. Let's face it.
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We still spend more time chasing funds than we do in the studio in creative work.
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Choreography is mentally draining, but there's a pleasure in getting into the studio with the dancers and the music.
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Dance is for everybody. I believe that the dance came from the people and that it should always be delivered back to the people.
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But the dance speaks to everyone. Otherwise it wouldn't work.
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One of the worst things about racism is what it does to young people.
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My feelings about myself have been terrible.
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One of the processes of your life is to constantly break down that inferiority, to constantly reaffirm that I Am Somebody.
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It will take very sophisticated marketing to achieve our aim of bringing more black people into the theater.
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Sometimes you feel bad about yourself when there's no reason to.
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My dancers must be able to do anything, and I don't care if they are black or white or purple or green. I want to help show my people how beautiful they are. I want to hold up the mirror to my audience that says this is the way people can be, this is how open people can be.
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Making dances is an act of progress it is an act of growth, an act of music, an act of teaching, an act of celebration, an act of joy.
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I'm attracted to long-legged girls with long arms and a little head.
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Everything in dancing is style, allusion, the essence of many thoughts and feelings. The abstraction of many moments.
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The creative process is not controlled by a switch you can simply turn on or off it's with you all the time.
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To be who you are and become what you are capable of is the only goal worth living.
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