Time & Perspective Quote by Florenz Ziegfeld

Precision is the point here: Ziegfeld is defending the idea that conformity and individuality aren’t opposites onstage, they’re a working partnership. In a chorus line, “thorough unison” is the baseline contract with the audience, the visual proof that the production has discipline, money, and control. But he immediately pivots to what he actually cares about: the micro-deviations that let a performer read as alive rather than mechanical. The “apt dancer” doesn’t break the picture; she adds voltage inside it.

His language is businesslike but loaded with aesthetic ideology. “Temperament, rhythm or technique” maps the whole performer: personality, musicality, craft. Then he stacks verbs - “phrase, accentuate, interpret” - like a producer cataloging acceptable forms of difference. It’s not rebellion; it’s curated distinction. Ziegfeld isn’t romanticizing the lone genius. He’s describing a controlled ecosystem where individuality is permitted only if it registers as refinement and never disrupts the brand.

The context is early 20th-century Broadway spectacle, where the Ziegfeld Follies sold modernity as synchronized glamour. Mass coordination signaled professionalism; subtle variation created stars. The subtext is a managerial philosophy of stardom: a show needs the chorus to read as one body, but it also needs a few bodies to hint at interior life, to tempt the audience into choosing favorites, to make the machine feel human. In that sense, it’s not just about dance. It’s about American entertainment learning how to manufacture uniqueness at scale.