Dance is for everybody. I believe that the dance came from the people and that it should always be delivered back to the people.
From his roots as a slave, the American Negro - sometimes sorrowing, sometimes jubilant but always hopeful - has touched, illuminated, and influenced the most remote preserves of world civilisation. I and my dance theater celebrate this trembling beauty.
One of the processes of your life is to constantly break down that inferiority, to constantly reaffirm that I Am Somebody.
I'm interested in putting something on stage that will have a very wide appeal without being condescending; that will reach an audience and make it part of the dance; that will get everybody in the theater.
I wanted to explore black culture, and I wanted that culture to be a revelation.
I feel an obligation to use black dancers because there must be more opportunities for them, but not because I'm a black choreographer talking to black people.