This New Dance Photography Book Offers Your Daily Dose of Inspiration

July 11, 2017

In her many years of shooting top dancers and choreographers, photographer Rose Eichenbaum has not only captured their movement, but collected their stories and the guidance they have to offer other artists.

Now, Eichenbaum is releasing a coffee table book, Inside the Dancer’s Art, filled with these artists’ words of wisdom alongside their portraits. Here are a few of our favorites.

“As a performer I didn’t pay much attention to the audience. I was too busy dancing. When the curtain came down and there was all this applause, it really didn’t matter much to me. I wasn’t doing it for them. I was doing it for myself.” —Paul Taylor

“What do I look like when I’m dancing? I really don’t know. I know what I feel when my arms are doing this or when I’m in the air. But if I were someone sitting in the audience looking at me—what would they be seeing? Would they be able to read my thoughts and feel my emotions?” —Tiler Peck

“We all make dances alone in our room. It’s how we cope with the emotions bubbling up inside. I’m still trying to find a way to blend those internal hard-edged realities with an outward corresponding movement vocabulary.” —Kyle Abraham

“It’s easy to feel restricted by technique, but it’s essential because without it, you can’t do the things you do. You can’t create magic that moves and transports an audience.” —Cassandra Trenary

“It’s only when you’re willing to show yourself openly as an artist that you truly begin to share with others. You don’t have to give it all up—expose yourself entirely—but it’s the realism that makes your work accessible.” —Desmond Richardson

“One must work the body like a racehorse. Rein her in and bring her under control. When she rebels, you must conquer her, become her master to bring body and mind into harmony.” —Natalia Makarova