Jean-Georges Noverre Quotes

• When the music and dance create with accord...their magic captivates both the heart and the mind.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Dance, Heart, Dancing

  25 Copy quote

• A fine picture is but the image of nature; a finished ballet is nature herself.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Ballet, Fine, Finished

  15 Copy quote

• This art, born of genius and good taste, can become beautiful and varied to an infinite degree.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Beautiful, Art, Ballet

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• True art consists in concealing art.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Art, Ballet, Concealing

  10 Copy quote

• If our ballets be feeble, monotonous and dull, if they be devoid of ideas, meaning, expression and character, it is less the fault of the art than that of the artist.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Art, Character, Expression

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• It is shameful that dancing should renounce the empire it might assert over the mind and only endeavor to please the sight.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Sight, Dancing, Ballet

  15 Copy quote

• In order to dance well, nothing is so important as the turning outwards of the thigh; and nothing is so natural to men as the contrary position.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Men, Order, Ballet

  15 Copy quote

• In order that our art may arrive at the degree of the sublime which I demand and hope for, it is imperative for dancers to divide their time and studies between the mind and the body, and that both become the object of their application; but, unfortunately, all is given to the latter and nothing to the former. The legs are rarely guided by the brain, and, since intelligence and taste do not reside in the feet, one often goes astray.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Art, Feet, Order

  17 Copy quote

• It is not a question of skimming the surface of the art, it must be probed to its depths, for to seize upon superficial things only is to degenerate into mediocrity and obscurity.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Art, Superficial Things, Ballet

  9 Copy quote

• Dancing and ballets would undoubtedly take on a new lease on life, if the customs established by a spirit of fear and jealousy did not in some way close the path of glory.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Dancing, Ballet, Way

  9 Copy quote

• I will make an average man into an average dancer, provided he be passably well made. I will teach him how to move his arms and legs, to turn his head. I will give him steadiness, brilliancy and speed; but I cannot endow him with that fire and intelligence, those graces and that expression of feeling which is the soul of true pantomime.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Dance, Moving, Men

  12 Copy quote

• The defect in wisdom and taste which exists among the majority of dancers is due to the bad education which they generally receive. They apply themselves only to the material side of their art, they learn to jump more or less high, they strive mechanically to execute a number of steps, and like children, who utter a great many words devoid of sense and relation, they execute many phrases of steps devoid of taste and grace.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Art, Children, Numbers

  18 Copy quote

• At our theaters we only see feeble copies of the copies that have proceeded them, renounce that slavish routine which keeps your art in its infancy; examine everything relative to the development of talents; be original; form a style for yourselves based on your private studies; if you must copy, imitate nature, it is a noble model and never misleads those who follow it.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Art, Ballet, Style

  13 Copy quote

• Applause lavished at a whim and without discernment, often proves the ruin of young people training for a stage career.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Careers, People, Ballet

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• No matter the style, the farther one goes the more obstacles increase, and the more distant appears the object it is desired to attain. Again, the most strenuous labor affords the greatest artists but a disquieting gleam which only reveals their inadequacy, while the self-satisfied ignoramus surrounded by the deepest gloom flatters himself that he has nothing more to learn.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Artist, Self, Ballet

  8 Copy quote

• The abuse of the best things is always detrimental.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Ballet, Abuse, Best Things

  7 Copy quote

• The defects born of habit are innumerable. I see every child occupied in some way in disarranging and disfiguring his physique; some displace the ankles through the habit they have contracted of standing on one leg only and playing, as it were, with the other; placing it in a position which though disagreeable and strained, does not fatigue them, because the softness of their tendons and muscles lend themselves to all kinds of movement.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Children, Ballet, Way

  7 Copy quote

• I cannot avoid condemning all those who, from self-conceit have the pretension to imitate great artists of the past. If their powers of emotion be weak, their powers of expression will be likewise.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Artist, Past, Self

  7 Copy quote

• I know that applause is food for the arts, but it ceases to be wholesome if administered indiscriminately; and the nutrition is so rich that, far from strengthening the constitution, it disturbs and enfeebles it. Stage beginners are similar to those children totally spoiled by the blind affection of their parents.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Art, Children, Parent

  9 Copy quote

• I should never conclude were I to speak to you of all the misfortunes which have their origin in the faulty carriage of the body. All these defects, mortifying for those who have contracted them, cannot be remedied except in their early stages. A habit born in childhood is strengthened in youth, becomes deeply rooted in adulthood and is incurable in old age.

  Jean-Georges Noverre

  Childhood, Ballet, Age

  7 Copy quote

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