Balanchine Dance Quotes & Sayings

If Balanchine had any secret, it was one that has endured through two hundred years of classical ballet. It is that dancing correctly in three dimensions, on the music, creates the fourth dimension of meaning. — Arlene Croce

Fitz yawned, and she patted Mr. Snuggles on the head as she stood to leave. He mumbled something, the words too sleepy to be coherent. But Sophie could've sworn he'd said, Miss you. — Shannon Messenger

Look at where I lived! Four blocks from Lincoln Center. I used to play in the fountain. And then I started taking dance lessons. I was in 'The Nutcracker' for the N.Y. City Ballet when I was 8 and dancing in 'The Firebird' for George Balanchine when I was 9. Believe me, that's something you don't ever forget. — Diane Paulus

Put a man and a girl on stage and there is already a story; a man and two girls, there's already a plot. — George Balanchine

Mr. Balanchine wanted me to be myself. He didn't want me to look like anyone else. I love teaching our company dancers the Balanchine ballets. I try to give them what was passed down to me and what I learned from him. They dance it so beautifully. It also keeps me close to Mr. Balanchine. He's with me every single day. — Patricia McBride

I could never make a ballet by wrinkling my brow and concentrating. If you set out deliberately to make a masterpiece, how will you ever get it finished? — George Balanchine

Dance is music made visible — George Balanchine

People who've had very unhappy childhoods are pretty good at inventing themselves. If nobody invents you for yourself, nothing is left but to invent yourself for others. — John Le Carre

I don't want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance. — George Balanchine

Ballet is important and significant - yes. But first of all, it is a pleasure. — George Balanchine

The mirror is not you. The mirror is you looking at yourself. — George Balanchine

First comes the sweat. Then comes the beauty if you're very lucky and have said your prayers. — George Balanchine

Someone once said that dancers work just as hard as policeman, always alert, always tense. But i dont agree with that because policeman don't have to look beautiful at the same time * — George Balanchine

I assumed this yoke would encase me as well as any another hobble. Only this one bound the mind. — Jazz Feylynn

I am a cloud - in trousers. — George Balanchine

My muse must come to me on union time. — George Balanchine

If you don't feel challenged, it's because you're not doing enough. Ballet should never feel comfortable. Comfortable is lazy! If you're comfortable when you dance, you're not pushing yourself hard enough. 100 % is not enough. You have to give 200%. One tendu takes years of hard work and will never be perfect. Everything in ballet is a challenge. — George Balanchine

He looked like Bree, didn't he? He was like her?" "Yes." He breathed heavily, almost a snort. "I could see it in your face - when you'd look at her, I could see you thinking of him. Damn you, Claire Beauchamp," he said, very softly. — Diana Gabaldon

I love Sufism as I love beautiful poetry, but it is not the answer. Sufism is like a mirage in the desert. It says to you, come and sit, relax and enjoy yourself for a while. — Naguib Mahfouz

See the music, hear the dance. — George Balanchine

It's like the time capsule with everything in it. Or like the seed that when you plant it, becomes the enormous tree with leaves and fruit. Everybody was in that little seed, and so everything can open. The tree of dance is like that. It just takes a long, long time to blossom. — George Balanchine

Choreography is simpler than you think. Just go and do, and don't think so much about it. Just make something interesting. — George Balanchine

One is born to be a dancer. No teacher can work miracles, nor will years of training make a good dancer of an untalented pupil. One may be able to acquire a certain technical facility, but no one can ever 'acquire an exceptional talent.' I have never prided myself on having an unusually gifted pupil. A Pavlova is no one's pupil but God's. — George Balanchine

In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell ... we can't dance synonyms. — George Balanchine

Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays. — George Balanchine

Trust processes as well as people. — Andy Hargreaves

Music must be seen, and dance must be heard — George Balanchine

And then I got into sports and gave my guitar to my brother Jeff who was just a little kid at that time. — Beau Bridges

I think Balanchine and Robbins talk to God and when I call, he's out to lunch. — Bob Fosse

We have quite a large area, and that makes it more fun for us - certainly more satisfying, because it doesn't restrict us to one particular idea or one particular style. The result, I think, is pretty interesting ... we don't expect to make a fortune at it or ever be popular or famous or worshipped or hit The Ed Sullivan Show or the circuses or the big top. As long as we can play, we'll play, regardless of what it's for, who it's for or anything. It's fun for us - that's the important thing. — Jerry Garcia

Ballet dancing is arduous, strenuous activity. Students are engaged in physical training that rivals the training Olympic athletes undergo. At the same time, they strive for physical perfection not for the prowess alone but as a way of achieving the means necessary to express the pure nature of their art. — George Balanchine

Martha Graham, along with George Balanchine, is one of the two commanding figures in 20th-century American dance. For those much younger than I am, her genius as a performer will have to be taken on faith - and on the always-suspect evidence of film. What will last, if things go well, is her genius as a choreographer, as a woman of the theater. — Robert Gottlieb