Ballet Quotes - Page 21

• I am very obsessed with ballet now because it is a very difficult sport and a beautiful one because it is not about money. It's not like playing football or tennis - dance has no sponsors, it's just for the beauty. Maybe it is the only last pure sport.

  Carine Roitfeld

  Beautiful, Sports, Football

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• Since nothing appears to me to give Children so much becoming Confidence and Behavior, and so raise them to the conversation of those above their Age, as Dancing. I think they should be taught to dance as soon as they are capable of learning it.

  John Locke

  Children, Thinking, Giving

  John Locke, Ruth Weissbourd Grant, Nathan Tarcov (1996). “Some Thoughts Concerning Education: And, Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, Hackett Publishing

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• Although most informed balletomanes would place artistry above technique, artistry without a strong technique is a flaccid, bloodless thing indeed, whereas technique without much artistry can still dazzle us in the manner of the circus or sports arena translated to a higher plane. Though the perfect blend of the two elements is the consummation devoutly to be wished, the real enemy of good ballet is not the slight preponderance of one or the other but the prevalence of pantomime--the turning of dance into second-rate theater.

  John Simon

  Sports, Strong, Real

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• If you looked at my feet, you would know for sure that I used to do ballet. They're completely destroyed and ripped up.

  Nina Dobrev

  Feet, Used, Knows

  "Nina Dobrev’s New Chapter". Interview with Michael Peña, www.interviewmagazine.com. October 8, 2015.

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• When I was nine, I started doing ballet. That's when I knew that I was down to keep doing it.

  Ansel Elgort

  Nine

  Interview with Colleen Kelsey, www.interviewmagazine.com. June 5, 2014.

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• I don't feel like my life is that of a superstar! Every day I wake up, I take the train, I go to my ballet class. My everyday life is pretty normal.

  Misty Copeland

  Ballet Class, Everyday, Normal

  Source: www.elle.com

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• I had rather be a kitten and cry mew Than one of these same metre ballet-mongers.

  William Shakespeare

  Cry, Kitten, Ballads

  'Henry IV, Part 1' (1597) act 3, sc. 1, l. [128]

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• Just as a child, before I ever knew what ballet was, there was something in me where I was always searching for something structured, something that was bigger than me, and something so historical that I could be a part of. I didn't find that until I stepped into the ballet world, and it was overwhelming, the feeling of being a part of something that's bigger than you.

  Misty Copeland

  Children, Feelings, Historical

  Source: collider.com

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• I feel like people used to leave their homes and go to their local theatre, and they used to watch ballet dancers and musical theatre performers and tap dancers and orchestras and dog acts. You had to leave your home, be in the presence of other people, know how to behave, and enjoy the human being whose beating heart was in front of you.

  Laura Benanti

  Dog, Home, Heart

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• Culture in America and everywhere else comes from the suffering, from those who don't want the old ways. They want to bring in the new, whether it's the ballet, when it started, or Shakespeare.

  Russell Simmons

  America, Suffering, Culture

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. September 26, 2002.

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• I need a big wave to really excel. The smaller stuff is a bit like...ballet for me.

  Laird Hamilton

  Stuff, Needs, Wave

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• I've been trained in dancing and I used to be quite good, though I am a bit rusty right now. But I could probably brush up in a couple of months. The funny thing is that I actually took classes from Savion Glover, who worked in Happy Feet, when I was a kid. Isn't that wild? I was part of a selected group that was brought into New York from New Jersey (which is where I'm from) to study, every Saturday: ballet, jazz and tap. It was a musical comedy group.

  Brittany Murphy

  New York, Couple, Kids

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

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• Hopefully, I'll be a part of ABT, in some way, forever. I think I'll always be a part of ballet and try to push diversity, for as long as I live.

  Misty Copeland

  Thinking, Long, Diversity

  Source: collider.com

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• New York. It's home to opera, Broadway, museums, the ballet and orchestra - everything that I love. The most real people in the world live there.

  Kristin Chenoweth

  New York, Real, Home

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• Ballet found me. I was discovered by a teacher in middle school. I always danced, my whole life. I never had any training, never was exposed to seeing dance, but I always had something inside of me.

  Misty Copeland

  Teacher, School, Training

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I'm a classical ballet dancer, and at the end of the day I want to be with American Ballet Theater, performing classical ballets.

  Misty Copeland

  Dancer, The End Of The Day, Want

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• When you are confronted with an opera, you have to keep an eye on everything: the musicians, the chorus, the ballet, the singers, the staging.

  Placido Domingo

  Eye, Musician, Opera

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• My grandmother had a Miss Margaret's School of Dance to teach tap and ballet to kids, but I never studied it. I was raised a Mormon and they're dancing fools. It's the only vice they have - dancing.

  Michelle Shocked

  School, Kids, Grandmother

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• If nobody comes to your shows, then it's modern dance. If everybody comes to your shows and no one likes it, is that ballet? I don't know.

  Mark Morris

  Likes, Modern, Shows

  "Mark Morris Interview: Dance Is What I Do". Interview with Sarah Crompton, www.telegraph.co.uk. March 30, 2010.

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• Notes for a ballet, The Spell: ... Suddenly Sigmund hears the flutter of wings, and a group of wild swans flies across the moon ... Sigmund is astounded to see that their leader is part swan and part woman - unfortunately, divided lengthwise. She enchants Sigmund, who is careful not to make any poultry jokes.

  Woody Allen

  Humorous, Moon, Swans

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• I still love to see the ballet. And I love to boogie.

  Alicia Vikander

  Boogie, Stills

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I grew up dancing, and my ballet teacher was literally a drill sergeant; she was so strict and so scary. And it made me a better dancer.

  Kate Hudson

  Teacher, Dancing, Dancer

  "Kate Hudson Wants You to Wear Gym Clothes On a Date". Interview with Faran Krentcil, www.elle.com. June 8, 2015.

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• Contrary to vulgar legend the lives of great ballerinas are not entirely given up to a few minutes of graceful movement every night followed by champagne drunk out of their toeshoes till dawn, in the company of financiers ... no, most of their time is spent in filthy rehearsal halls, inhaling dust, or else in class, daily, year in year out, practicing, practicing even after they are already prima ballerinas.

  Gore Vidal

  Night, Dust, Years

  Gore Vidal (2011). “Death in the Fifth Position”, p.77, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

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• If we don't take that time (to be romantic), then it's karate, then it's ballet, and then there's Christmas, and then my husband is flying off to tour around the world.

  Heidi Klum

  Husband, Flying, World

  InStyle, February 2010.

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• Lots of people make the stage and it can seem very violent and over the top, but it's not really. It's always a kind of gentle ballet.

  Steven Morrissey

  People, Kind, Violent

  "LA Confidential". "Mojo" Magazine, April 2001.

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