How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
SAM. [The waltz makes] people happy.
HALLY. (The glass in his hand) So do American cream sodas with ice cream. For God's sake, Sam, you're not asking me to take ballroom dancing serious, are you?
SAM. Yes. (1184-1188)
Sam tries another tack with Hally in the debate over the artistic status of ballroom dancing. Do you think that making people happy has anything to do with art? Hally doesn't, but Sam insists that affecting emotions is an important part of art. Fugard develops these two characters as a kind of reason vs. emotion thing. If something doesn't make intellectual sense to Hally, he can't accept it. Sam, on the other hand, has values that are based on feeling and experiencing.
Quote #5
SAM. You still haven't told me what's wrong with admiring something that's beautiful and then trying to do it yourself.
HALLY. Nothing. But we happen to be talking about a foxtrot, not a thing of beauty.
SAM. But that is just what I'm saying. If you were to see two champions doing, two masters of the art… (1192-1198)
He's tried intellect, emotion, and now Sam tries to convince Hally with another possible definition for art: something beautiful. Now the question is whether or not ballroom dancing is beautiful, and we're pretty sure that's not even a question.
Quote #6
HALLY. There's a limit, Sam. Don't confuse art with entertainment.
SAM. So then what is art?
[…]
HALLY. (He realizes he has got to be careful. He gives the matter a lot of thought before answering) [. . .] But basically I suppose it's…the giving of meaning to matter. (1201-1210)
If art is just "the giving of meaning to matter," it means that it's not the matter that makes something art. That is, a painting isn't art until someone gives it meaning. Which means, basically, that it's in the eye of the beholder. And that means that if Sam thinks the foxtrot is art, then it's art. You can almost se Hally painting himself into a corner (no pun intended).