Ballet Dance Quotes - Page 3

• Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Volleyball, Mean

  Martha Graham (1991). “Blood memory”, Doubleday

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• The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener.

  George Balanchine

  Beautiful, Dance, Flower

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• All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.

  Moliere

  Dance, Book, Skills

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• We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God.

  Martha Graham

  Life, Dance, Education

  Martha Graham (1991). “Blood memory”, Doubleday

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  The real American type can never be a ballet dancer. The legs are too long, the body too supple and the spirit too free for this school of affected grace and toe walking.

  Isadora Duncan

  Dance, Real, School

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• I think most dancers would agree that the art of ballet chooses the dancer, not the other way around.

  Kevin McKenzie

  Art, Thinking, Dancer

  45 Copy quote

• On dancing on pointe: Why don't they just get taller girls?

  Henny Youngman

  Girl, Dancing, Ballet

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• You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that fleeting moment when you feel alive. It is not for unsteady souls .

  Merce Cunningham

  Dance, Wall, Museums

  Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, Bill T. Jones, Walker Art Center (1998). “Art performs life: Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, Bill T. Jones”

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• He [Gene Kelly] once told me dancing was a man's game, as much of a sport as baseball itself. And he made us believe that. He changed our minds and suddenly, all of America wanted to dance just like Gene Kelly.

  Liza Minnelli

  Dance, Sports, Baseball

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• Dancers work and live from the inside. They drive themselves constantly producing a glow that lights not only themselves but audience after audience.

  Murray Louis

  Dance, Light, Dancing

  55 Copy quote

• Many other women have kicked higher, balanced longer, or turned faster. These are poor substitutes for passion.

  Agnes de Mille

  Dance, Passion, Ballet

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• The physical language of the body is so much more powerful than words.

  Bill Irwin

  Dance, Powerful, Dancing

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• The mirror is not you. The mirror is you looking at yourself.

  George Balanchine

  Dance, Mirrors, Dancing

  80 Copy quote

• The discipline that ballet requires is obsessive. And only the ones who dedicate their whole lives are able to make it. Your toenails fall off and you peel them away and then you're asked to dance again and keep smiling. I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer.

  Penelope Cruz

  Fall, Discipline, Dancer

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Dance for yourself. If someone understands, good. If not, no matter.

  Louis Horst

  Dance, Dancing, Ballet

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• Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Life, Dance, Being Yourself

  "Margot Fonteyn : Autobiography‎" by Margot Fonteyn, (p. 81), 1975.

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• Dance is an art that imprints on the soul. It is with you every moment, it expresses itself in everything you do.

  Shirley MacLaine

  Dance, Art, Dancing

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• Freedom to a dancer means discipline. That is what technique is for -- liberation.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Mean, Discipline

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• I believe that we learn by practice... it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which come shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Believe, Practice

  Martha Graham (1991). “Blood Memory”, Washington Square Press

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• Dance every performance as if it were your last.

  Erik Bruhn

  Dance, Dancing, Lasts

  58 Copy quote

• Swan Lake is the most difficult thing to portray for a female ballet dancer; it really requires such specific qualities of articulation, agility, strength, and the arm work is something that takes a lot of training.

  Benjamin Millepied

  Lakes, Swans, Dancer

  "Black Swan Choreographer Benjamin Millepied on Teaching Natalie Portman to Have Swan Arms" by Rebecca Milzoff, www.vulture.com. December 3, 2010.

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• It's what I always wanted to do, to show the laughter, the fun, the joy of dance.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Laughter, Fun

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• The vocabulary and manner of classical ballet express a high order of discipline and restraint, a sense of harmony with forces larger and more lasting than the individual.

  Marcia Siegel

  Vocabulary, Order, Ballet Class

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• In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell. We can't dance synonyms.

  George Balanchine

  Dance, Ballet, Stories

  Life magazine, p. 98, June 11, 1965.

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• I do everything the man does, only backwards and in high heels!

  Ginger Rogers

  Inspirational, Dance, Men

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