Ballet quotes:

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Ballet's image of perfection is fashioned amid a milieu of wracked bodies, fevered imaginations, Balkan intrigue and sulfurous hatreds where anything is likely, and dancers know it. -- Shana Alexander
Ballet is a dance executed by the human soul. -- Alexander Pushkin
I think of the New York City Ballet as the Yankees without George Steinbrenner. -- John Guare
If mutual fund directors are independent, then I'm the lead character in the Bolshoi Ballet. -- Charlie Munger
However, the moral center of New York City, I believe, is the New York City Ballet. -- John Guare
And what would be great numbers in a Broadway show are now on stage of the New York City Ballet. -- John Guare
Does the New York City Ballet affect other places? Yeah, it lets people know they should come to New York. -- John Guare
I think that every year that the New York City Ballet is alive is worthy of celebration. Because otherwise the terrible thing is just that we take it for granted. -- John Guare
And it is always Easter Sunday at the New York City Ballet. It is always coming back to life. Not even coming back to life - it lives in the constant present. -- John Guare
Ballet is the fairies baseball. -- Oscar Levant
Ballet teaches you how to hold yourself. -- Joseph Altuzarra
Ballet.something pure in this crazy world -- Misty Copeland
Ballet will speak for itself. About itself. -- George Balanchine
Ballet technique never becomes easy, it becomes possible -- Agnes de Mille
Ballet is only good when it is great. -- Arlene Croce
Ballet is a riddle of means and ends. -- Gelsey Kirkland
Ballet is incestuous. This world is smaller than small. -- David Hallberg
City Ballet remains a great company in perpetual artistic crisis. -- Robert Gottlieb
Ballet is good, because it makes you stand up tall. -- Carine Roitfeld
I grew up studying ballet; I grew up honing my craft. -- Janice Dickinson
Ballet really taught me so much about the power of movement. -- Karlie Kloss
Ballet-girls have a bad reputation, which is in most cases well deserved. -- Henry Mayhew
All the New York City Ballet does is hit beautiful home runs. -- John Guare
The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure. -- Dale Carnegie
Ballet costumes are easier that opera because they are designed for movement. -- Azzedine Alaia
Ballet-girls have a bad reputation, which is in most cases well deserved -- Henry Mayhew
The first dance performance I saw was Joffrey Ballet doing 'Billboards' to Prince. -- Kyle Abraham
Ballet in the air... Twin butterflies until, twice white They Meet, they mate -- Matsuo Basho
Ballet is more than a profession - it is a way of life. -- Margot Fonteyn
Ballet is such a disciplined craft and it has given me a good grounding. -- Jennifer Ellison
Ballet: men wearing pants so tight that you can tell what religion they are. -- Robin Williams
Dance is very, very old. With Louis XIV at Versailles is where ballet started. -- Neve Campbell
One of the most beautiful sights in dance is American Ballet Theatre in full flight. -- Clive Barnes
There would never have been a British Ballet without Diaghilev. He had a wonderful influence -- Ninette de Valois
I never went to a ballet until I was 45 years old. I don't know why. -- Robert Caro
Ballet is important and significant - yes. But first of all, it is a pleasure. -- George Balanchine
In fact, ballet companies did not exist in the Midwest when I was a child. -- Suzanne Farrell
Dancing is a tough career, but I'm glad I spent it at the Royal Ballet. -- Deborah Bull
Ballet is sort of a mystery to me. And I don't want to unravel that mystery. -- Robert Caro
The truest expression of a people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie. -- Agnes de Mille
If a ballet dancer falls over, it's knowing how to get out looking clumsy that counts. -- Ritchie Blackmore
The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have. -- Norman Vincent Peale
Making the ballet really taught me how to get things moving. Ballet dancers don't stand still. -- Guy Maddin
Ballet is like any other art form in that we all start out knowing nothing about it. -- Robert Gottlieb
Since my mom is the President of Ballet Hawaii, I'm always in touch with stuff going on. -- Joan Chen
I am both proud and honored to be on the Board of Directors for the Texas Ballet Theater. -- Janine Turner
You increase muscle bulk by training against resistance. For example, weights. And in ballet, this isn't the case. -- Deborah Bull
To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other. -- Jack Handey
Ballet is quite unnatural on the joints. My body is just worn. My joints are 10 years older than me. -- Darcey Bussell
One of the few things in dance to match the Royal Ballet's curtain calls is the Royal Ballet's dancing. -- Clive Barnes
I've been dancing all my life and studied at Joffrey Ballet when I was 13 and singing all my life. -- Melora Hardin
I ended up training only for four years before I was accepted into American Ballet Theater in New York City. -- Misty Copeland
I had to do a tango with Raft and I learned to dance in ballet shoes with my knees bent. -- Marie Windsor
Ballet is not technique but a way of expression that comes more closely to the inner language of man than any other. -- George Sava
You can't drink on an eight hour flight, pass out, and then go onstage... well you can, but then you're Spandau Ballet. -- Robert Smith
I do take class because I still dance, and yes, I do slip into class with the Royal Ballet from time to time. -- Deborah Bull
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
Ballet is not just my profession, it is my life ... It is horrible for me to think that one day it will all finish. -- Svetlana Zakharova
Ballet is an incredibly difficult, beautiful art form that takes a lot of training, a lot of time, and a lot of hard work. -- Sutton Foster
Ballet is not just movement, not simply abstract. It's something beautiful. Sometimes there's this feeling in the movement that makes me want to cry. -- Nina Ananiashvili
Ballet is the body rising. Ballet is ceremonial and hieratic. Its disdain for the commonplace material world is the source of its authority and glamour. -- Camille Paglia
Ballet for a rainy day Silent film of melting miracle play Dancing out there through my window To the backdrop of a slow descending grey -- Andy Partridge
I went to the Performing Arts School and studied classical ballet. That attitude is something that's put into your head. You are never thin enough. -- Carmen Electra
Everything seems to be going faster and faster. It's really harder to create something that endures. The New York City Ballet has succeeded in doing that. -- Robert Caro
The New York City Ballet is obviously speaking to a whole new generation and bringing it the same wonder and beauty that it brought previous generations. -- Robert Caro
Ballet is number one, everything else is scheduled in the small windows when I'm not in the studio taking class, rehearsing, on stage or on tour. -- Misty Copeland
The New York City Ballet is obviously speaking to a whole new generation and bringing it the same wonder and beauty that it brought previous generations -- Robert Caro
The particular ballet was not so important as the fact that I was physically healthy, and capable of getting out there and dancing as often as possible. -- Suzanne Farrell
Ballet is ultimately a logical technique; it favors the shortest, most efficient route from one position into another. This factor gives an aesthetic clarity to all motions. -- Anna Paskevska
At age 14, coming to the U.S., all I knew was American Ballet Theatre, Baryshnikov, Nureyev, and some of the European companies. I barely knew anything about Balanchine. -- Carla Korbes
I took several years of dance lessons that included ballet, tap and jazz. They helped a great deal with body control, balance, a sense of rhythm, and timing. -- Lynn Swann
I love ballet. Ballet is its own being. It has its own vocabulary. I feel as if I am in a different world when I am in the ballet studio. -- Kiernan Shipka
Not very many companies go through Hawaii on their way to anywhere. San Francisco Ballet was the only company I remember, and Bolshoi, coming through Hawaii when I was younger. -- Joan Chen
The life of a dancer is tragically short. What is remarkable about the New York City Ballet is that it makes us forget that. Because it keeps the ballet alive. -- John Guare
I had a really creative teacher at primary school. He used to get us doing things such as singing Spandau Ballet in drag in the choir, and I remember loving it. -- Dominic Cooper
There might've been wires, but I have this ability to make myself light. Well you know what, in ballet, when you kind of lift yourself here, it's all up in the head. -- Albert Finney
Ballet pumps are the dream shoes because they are so comfortable. They look great both with jeans and summer dresses; and you can even wear the right pair with an evening gown. -- Twiggy
I love New York. I was in New York at the age of 13, at the School of American Ballet, walking around the subways in my little bunhead and thinking I was so cool. -- Teri Polo
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
Ballet was exactly what I was searching for, but my environment definitely made me the dancer and the person that I am today. And the Hip-Hop culture was a big part of it. -- Misty Copeland
Ballet Beautiful is really good for me, and it doesn't hurt my back, and it's a way for me to kind of get my heart moving and tone every part of my body. -- Erin Heatherton
My mom and dad would take me all over. One night we'd be at the Apollo watching James Brown, and then I'd be at the Joffrey Ballet. It was that kind of scene. -- Lenny Kravitz
Ballet is certainly appreciated in New York, but it has been a part of the Russian culture, history and heritage for hundreds of years, so it's much more instilled in the Russian blood. -- David Hallberg
Ballet really lends itself to that because there's such a sense of ritual, with wrapping the shoes every day and preparing new shoes for every performance. It's such a process. It's almost religious, in nature. -- Natalie Portman
Ballet is completely unnatural to the body, just being turned-out... it's not the way your body is supposed to function, so you actually train your body to be a different structure than you were born with. -- Neve Campbell
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
I was born in Toronto and studied with the National Ballet of Canada. I went to school to study dance, slept on the floor, ate nothing, waitressed - and then there was a Mary J. Blige audition. -- Laurieann Gibson
Ballet is completely unnatural to the body, just being turned out... it's not the way your body is supposed to function, so you actually train your body to be a different structure than you were born with. -- Neve Campbell
We are going to set up a branch of the St Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre here [on the Far Easter]. We are also planning to open local branches of the Hermitage Museum and the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. -- Vladimir Putin
City Ballet has to develop choreographers of stature and a new approach to coaching before everything we value about it fades away and, in the great tradition of the Cheshire Cat, there's nothing left but Peter Martins' smile. -- Robert Gottlieb
Ballet might be too formal of a title for the type of dance I do, but I love to dance. I love to draw and paint; I do ceramics and photography. I'm interested in a lot of creative stuff. -- Jeff Bridges
We arrived and we thought, 'This is our time. This is our generation. We have a responsibility.' " @garyjkemp of Spandau Ballet in "Mad World: An Oral History of the New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s -- Lori Majewski
Ballet is always about the realm of possibilities, the realm of what the human body can do, what the human spirit can do. And it's about listening, it's about listening to remarkable music and how we respond to that. -- John Guare
Ballet is like football. I don't understand a footballer's technique but I can see when he's playing brilliantly. People don't like ballet because they think they don't understand it. Actually they do. It's the most primitive form of appeal. -- Robert Helpmann
I started Ballet at a very young age and I was captivated immediately. It became my voice, means to overcome those final barriers to expressing myself. Letting myself fly free. The more experience I have, the more I get to know myself. -- Amanda McKerrow
The New York City Ballet is always about the realm of possibilities, the realm of what the human body can do, what the human spirit can do. And it's about listening, it's about listening to remarkable music and how we respond to that. -- John Guare
Figure skating has been a great influence for me. I took dance at the School of American Ballet, which helped my own skating. And whether you are a skater or a dancer, without sounding narcissistic, it is all about looking in the mirror. -- Vera Wang
I did grow up in France, and even though I didn't go to the school or dance with the Paris Opera Ballet, I absorbed similar ideas in my training. I understand the scale of a big company. I danced for one for almost 20 years. -- Benjamin Millepied
Ballet has really helped me in every acting role. You have to be very disciplined, you have to be able to control your nerves and perform under pressure, and all those things you have to use in acting when you're on film or going for an audition. -- Mia Wasikowska
I've always been interested in both writing and music. When I first started getting published, I also worked as rehearsal pianist for the Boston Ballet, touring with them all over the U.S.A. and Europe - I wasn't making enough money from writing to support myself. -- William Sleator
I went to the International Ballet competition when I was 15 or 16 and that was the first time I competed. I didn't get very far but it was the first time that I realized what I needed to do to become a dancer. I realized how hard it was. -- Joan Chen
Melissa Barak, an ex-City Ballet dancer and sometime choreographer, has put together an unspeakably dopey and incompetent mess called 'Call Me Ben,' combining ultra-generic dance, terrible dialogue and disastrous storytelling, about the founding of Las Vegas by the gangster Bugsy Siegel, who insists, violently, on being addressed as 'Ben.' -- Robert Gottlieb
Wrestling is ballet with violence. -- Jesse Ventura
Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body. -- Martha Graham
I love ballet because you can see how beautiful the body is. -- Carine Roitfeld
Men wearing pants so tight that you can tell what religion they are. -- Robin Williams
In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell... we can't dance synonyms. -- George Balanchine
When other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers I kind of wanted to be a vampire. -- Angelina Jolie
When I was a little kid, I took tap and ballet. I've always loved to dance. I'm a rhythm machine. -- Tommy Lee
The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener. -- George Balanchine
When life takes me on a new journey, I simply remember the smile my first ballet recital put on my face and I move forward. -- Andrea Thompson
My world was a community ballet school, a marching band, my two sisters and my girlfriends. I played saxophone in the band and was a bit nerdy. -- Jennifer Garner
You can imagine me as a kid growing up in redneck Texas with ballet shoes, tucking the violin under my arm. I had to fight my way up. -- Patrick Swayze
I wasn't a competitor. I would play outside with my friends, but not really anything like ballet or soccer. I tried to play soccer, and it went badly. -- Sibel Kekilli
The highest heels I do are six-inch heels - but mostly only dancers can wear them, since they are used to being on point in ballet shoes. Their feet are arched. -- Christian Louboutin
What really matters is that 'Black Swan' deploys and exaggerates all the cliches of earlier ballet movies, especially 'The Red Shoes,' another tale of a ballerina driven mad and suicidal. -- Robert Gottlieb
Growing up in Niagara Falls, Ontario, I took classes as a young girl and became very serious about ballet, and also performed with a local company, although it wasn't a professional company. -- Cathy Marie Buchanan
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
What 'War and Peace' is to the novel and 'Hamlet' is to the theater, Swan Lake' is to ballet - that is, the name which to many people stands for and sums up an art form. -- Robert Gottlieb
I grew up with classical music when I was a ballet dancer. Now when I have to prepare an emotional scene, to cry or whatever, I listen to sonatas. Vivaldi and stuff. It's just beautiful to me. -- Diane Kruger

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