37+ George Balanchine Quotes On Art, His Work And Your Toes

George Balanchine was a Russian-born choreographer who is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in ballet history. He co-founded the New York City Ballet and developed a new form of ballet known as neoclassical ballet. His works are still performed by many major ballet companies around the world. Following is our collection on famous quotes by George Balanchine on love, art, life.

Top 10 George Balanchine Quotes

1. First comes the sweat. Then comes the beauty if you're very lucky and have said your prayers.
2. Why are you stingy with yourselves? Why are you holding back? What are you saving for - for another time? There are no other times. There is only now. Right now.
3. In my ballets, woman is first. Men are consorts. God made men to sing the praises of women. They are not equal to men: They are better.
4. I don't want people who want to dance; I want people who have to dance.
5. Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays.
6. The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener.
7. Dance is music made visible
8. Choreography is simpler than you think. Just go and do, and don't think so much about it. Just make something interesting.
9. God creates, I do not create. I assemble and I steal everywhere to do it - from what I see, from what the dancers can do, from what others do.
10. The mirror is not you. The mirror is you looking at yourself.

George Balanchine Short Quotes

• The woman's function is to fascinate men.
• Your eyes is camera and your brain is a file cabinet.
• I have no literary approach - except to literature.
• See the music, hear the dance.
• I've got more energy now than when I was younger because I know exactly what I want to do.
• Music must be seen, and dance must be heard
• They are poets of gesture.
• I cannot move, I cannot even want to move, unless I hear the music first.
• What are you waiting for? What are you saving for? Now is all there is.

George Balanchine Quotes About His Work

I can always invent movement, and sometimes it can be fitted into the right place, but that is not choreography. It is the music that dictates the whole shape of the work. I do not believe in the permanence of anything in ballet save the purely classical. — George Balanchine

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

The choreographer and the dancer must remember
that they reach the audience through the eye.
It's the illusion created which convinces the audience,
much as it is with the work of a magician. — George Balanchine

George Balanchine Quotes About Ballet

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

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

Most ballet teachers in the United States are terrible. If they were in medicine, everyone would be poisoned. — George Balanchine

I am a cloud - in trousers. — George Balanchine

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

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

The pointes for girls, I always say, have to be like an elephant's trunk; strong and yet flexible and soft. — George Balanchine

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

Ballet will speak for itself. About itself. — George Balanchine

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

George Balanchine Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

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

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

Storyless is not abstract. Two dancers on the stage are enough material for a story; for me, they are already a story in themselves — George Balanchine

I don't have a past. I have a continuous present. The past is part of the present, just as the future is. We exist in time. — George Balanchine

Life Lessons by George Balanchine

1. George Balanchine's work is a testament to the power of creativity and innovation, as he revolutionized the world of dance with his unique style and choreography.
2. His work also emphasizes the importance of discipline and hard work, as he devoted his life to perfecting his craft.
3. Finally, Balanchine's work serves as a reminder of the beauty and joy that can be found in the art of dance, and the impact it can have on people's lives.