137 Classical Dance Quotes

Following is our list of classical dance quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about ballet.

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Famous Classical Dance Quotes

Classical ballet will never die. - Ninette de Valois

Classical ballet will never die. — Ninette de Valois

Ballet is a dance executed by the human soul. — Alexander Pushkin

Ballet.something pure in this crazy world — Misty Copeland

Dance is music made visible — George Balanchine

The dance is the mother of the arts. Music and poetry exist in time; painting and architecture in space. But the dance lives at once in time and space. — Curt Sachs

Dance, one of the oldest forms of artistic expression, requires only the human body for its realization. — Igor Youskevitch

My dance is a sacred poem in which each movement is a word and whose every word is underlined by music. The temple in which I dance can be vague or faithfully reproduced, for I am the temple. — Mata Hari

I’ve learned what ‘classical’ means. It means something that sings and dances through sheer joy of existence. — Gustav Holst

The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word. - Mata Hari

The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word. — Mata Hari

A divine dance appears in the soul and the body at the time of peace and union.Anyone can learn the dance, just listen to the music. — Rumi

Dance is not an exercise. Dance is an art. - Alicia Alonso

Dance is not an exercise. Dance is an art. — Alicia Alonso

Dance is like wine; it matures with every performance. — Alarmel Valli

Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain. — Martha Graham

What's so wonderful about ballet is that it's mind-driven physicality. It's almost a Greek ideal of body, mind, and form. — Edward Villella

Dance is very, very old. With Louis XIV at Versailles is where ballet started. — Neve Campbell

Short Classical Dance Quotes

  • I believe dance is a manifestation and celebration of the tenacity of the human spirit. — Robert Battle
  • You cannot dance an arabesque in 'Swan Lake' and 'Nutcracker' the same way. — Natalia Makarova
  • Dance form is logical, but it is all in the realm of feeling, sensitivity and imagination. — Doris Humphrey
  • The most essential thing in dance discipline is devotion. — Merce Cunningham
  • Dance is so important in the world. It needs no language. Our bodies speak a language of its own. — Ibrahim Farah
  • Dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music — Charles Baudelaire
  • Dancing: The Highest Intelligence in the Freest Body. — Isadora Duncan
  • The Dance: A minimum of explanation, a minimum of anecdotes - and a maximum of sensations. — Maurice Bejart

Classical Dance Image Quotes

Classical dance quote If you stumble, make it part of the dance.
If you stumble, make it part of the dance.

Ballet Class Quotes

When I miss class for one day, I know it. When I miss class for two days, my teacher knows it. When I miss class for three days, the audience knows it. — Rudolf Nureyev

If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it - Isadora Duncan

If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it — Isadora Duncan

When you take dancing lessons, you learn steps and you learn steps and you learn steps. It can go on for a long time. And then one day, you just learn to dance, and it is so different. — Bill Austin

Classical dance quote You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.
You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.

Dance, dance, dance till you drop. — W. H. Auden

Every teacher will tell you that you cannot dance classical technique with perfection, there is no such thing, there is no way. So you have to adapt the technique to your abilities or to your deficiencies. Learn to cheat! — Jiri Kylian

On the other hand, I think it is wonderful for everyone to take ballet classes, at any age. It gives you a discipline, it gives you a place to go. It gives you some control in your life. — Suzanne Farrell

Classical dance quote Think positively; Exercise daily; Eat Healthy; Work Hard; Stay strong; Worry less; Dance more; Love
Think positively; Exercise daily; Eat Healthy; Work Hard; Stay strong; Worry less; Dance more; Love often.

My first ballet class was on a basketball court. I'm in my gym clothes and my socks trying to do this thing called ballet. — Misty Copeland

I don't try to dance better than anybody but myself. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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

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

Ballet Quotes

You can do anything you want, even if you are being told negative things.stay strong and find motivation. — Misty Copeland

The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place is always replete with new improvisations. — Jane Jacobs

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. — George Balanchine

There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them. - Vicki Baum

There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them. — Vicki Baum

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

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

Classical dance quote Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, its about learning to dance with the rain
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, its about learning to dance with the rain

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

Master technique and then forget about it and be natural. - Anna Pavlova

Master technique and then forget about it and be natural. — Anna Pavlova

I do everything the man does, only backwards and in high heels! — Ginger Rogers

Badminton is like ballet dancing. It requires a lot of control, strength, mind play and measured movement — Aamir Khan

Dance Class Quotes

In high school, I taught dance classes for 3-year-olds up to 16-year-olds, so between that and some bat mitzvah money, I saved up a pretty good nest egg to move to L.A. — Dianna Agron

When I was in New York after I left the Army, I studied for two years at the American Theater Wing, studied acting, which involved dance and fencing and speech classes and history of theater, all that. — James Earl Jones

There's a lot of good rappers in England at the moment. There's a lot of good dance acts. A lot of good, young guitar acts. I think a lot of groups came from that dole culture of the late 80's/early 90's - it's not as easy now. I think there's a dearth of working class bands. — Ian Brown

Classical dance quote Optimist is someone who figures that taking a step backward after a step forward is not a disaster,
Optimist is someone who figures that taking a step backward after a step forward is not a disaster, it's more like a cha-cha.

You will only get out of a dance class what you bring to it. Learn by practice. — Martha Graham

My first show was when I was a high school freshman, but it was at the junior class dance. My older friend and bandmate booked it. — Frank Iero

Never stop moving, or you'll stop moving. I go to dance class every morning, and it's just good to stay strong; I like being healthy. — Liza Minnelli

Classical dance quote Trust me, You can dance.
Trust me, You can dance.

Someone told me about drama schools, and they seemed like mythological places - you can really go and be in drama classes all day? I inadvertently entered into this world where people wore bicycle clips and did song-and-dance routines in the corridors. — Nick Moran

I endured quite a few injuries when I was younger and had my first surgery on my foot when I was 15. But I love dancing. 'Anna Karenina' was great for me as it meant I could combine the two and I actually went back and did some classes. — Alicia Vikander

I was really into dancing, taking six classes a week, and my real dream was to be in a Broadway show. — Natalie Portman

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

Ballet Teachers Quotes

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

The teacher doesn't teach, not really. The teacher offers stimulation and ways in which the person can educate himself or herself. At best the teacher wakes up that person and makes a person hungry. — Murray Louis

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

Classical dance quote Take more chances, dance more dances.
Take more chances, dance more dances.

Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It's the rhythym of your life. — Jacques d'Amboise

I was called a bookish child. Mother sent me to a ballet teacher in Cincinnati when I was nine years old. I guess I was an awkward child and the family wanted me to be graceful. When I found out I liked to dance and people seemed to like to watch me, I was determined to go places. — Vera-Ellen

I have a sister who is a dancer and dance teacher. We grew up dancing together. I wanted to become a ballerina when I was a kid, so she and I were always at ballet conservatories and going to school with our hair in buns. — Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Classical dance quote Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, It's about learning to dance in the rain.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, It's about learning to dance in the rain.

I want to be a lawyer, a dancer, an actress, a mother, a wife, a childrens author, a distance runner, a poet, a pianist, a pet store owner, an astronaut, an environmental and humanitarian activist, a psychiatrist, a ballet teacher, and the first woman president. — Rachel Corrie

I started with ballet and then my cousin Sarah introduced me to her tap teachers. — Adam Garcia

I wasn't a ballet baby. My first dance class was in an outdoor pavilion when I was three. It was called 'creative movement.' The teacher gave us chiffon scarves in beautiful colors. She turned on some music and said, 'Now go dance.' So for me, dance has always been about self-expression. — Carrie Ann Inaba

I wanted to be a ballet teacher. — Jaclyn Smith

Modern Dance Quotes

We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams. — Albert Einstein

In point of substantial merit the law school belongs in the modern university no more than a school of fencing or dancing. — Thorstein Veblen

If there was a volcano under their feet, a Vesuvius that could erupt and bury this modern-day Pompeii at any moment, the best thing to do was dance on it. — Deborah Davis

Classical dance quote No matter what, nobody can take away the dances you've already had.
No matter what, nobody can take away the dances you've already had.

There are times when the simple dignity of movementcan fulfill the function of a volume of words. — Doris Humphrey

Rock ’n roll is really swing with a modern name. It began on the levees and plantations, took in folk songs, and features blues and rhythm. It's the rhythm that gets to the kids – they're starved of music they can dance to, after all those years of crooners. — Alan Freed

Classic Van Halen made people want to dance and f**k. Modern Van Halen makes you want to drink milk and drive foreign cars. — David Lee Roth

Classical dance quote Great leaders are willing to follow. Leadership is a dance, not a parade.
Great leaders are willing to follow. Leadership is a dance, not a parade.

Modern physics had shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of living creatures, but is also the very essence of inorganic matter. For modern physicists...Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter. — Fritjof Capra

Modern dance isn't anything except one thing in my mind: the freedom of women in America. — Martha Graham

Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery - what it all means, the way the little bone near the ankle relates itself to the floor for a perfect stance, a perfect plie. — Martha Graham

I was used to dancing, but only when someone told you what to do. So in the nightclub I was all over the place, I combined everything. Street dance, modern dance, a bit of jazz and ballet, I was Twyla Tharp, I was Alvin Ailey, I was Michael Jackson. I didn't care, I was free. — Madonna Ciccone

Tap Dance Quotes

Do it big, do it right, and do it with style. — Fred Astaire

Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars. — Gustave Flaubert

I still get very excited when people say they fall in love. It doesn’t matter how old you are, falling in love is a beautiful thing. And I still act like I did when I was a teenager. I get fluttery and tap dance around. I’m never afraid of making funny faces or being completely goofy. — Cote de Pablo

Classical dance quote The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

On Saturday afternoons, there was a film, of course, and then we did about four shows between the films. And I would do a tap dance, a little military tap. — Barbara Cook

When people say you're doing something radical in rock or dance music, I'm not sure how special that is. What we do is so old-fashioned. It's like trying to do something innovative in tap-dancing. — Jonny Greenwood

Dancing is like dreaming with your feet! — Constanze Mozart

I don't tap dance, and I don't think you can learn to tap dance in three weeks at my ripe old age. — Huey Lewis

As we tap into the deep sources of bodily wisdom through creative art expression,we dance the renewal, recreation, and healing of ourselves and our world. — Anna Halprin

My mother told me I was dancing before I was born. She could feel my toes tapping wildly inside her for months. — Ginger Rogers

Once you're on stage you can't go back, even when things go wrong people expect you to stay there and entertain them. When all else fails, you've got to try tap dancing. — Angus Young

Pointe Dancers Quotes

Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it. — Martha Graham

Technical perfection is insufficient. It is an orphan without the true soul of the dancer. — Sylvie Guillem

People tend to look at dancers like we are these little jewels, little cardboard cut outs, and yet we have blood and guts and go through Hell. — Susan Jaffe

The physical language of the body is so much more powerful than words. — Bill Irwin

I've reached a point where I'm comfortable in my own skin, and I do what I need to do, to feel good, but I'm built the way I am. The dancer's feet, the bruises on my legs, they're not going to go away. I think real girls have bruises. Tough chicks get bruised. They get dirty. And they have fun. — Nina Dobrev

Many other women have kicked higher, balanced longer, or turned faster. These are poor substitutes for passion. — Agnes De Mille

It takes ten years, usually, to make a dancer. It takes ten years of handling the instrument, handling the material with which you are dealing, for you to know it completely. — Martha Graham

There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. — Martha Graham

On dancing on pointe: Why don't they just get taller girls? — Henny Youngman

There are three steps you have to complete to become a professional dancer: learn to dance, learn to perform, and learn how to cope with injuries. — David Gere

Ballet Dancer Quotes

Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion. — Martha Graham

Dance for yourself. If someone understands, good. If not, no matter. — Louis Horst

Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching, and live like it’s heaven on earth. — Susanna Clarke

Dance till the stars come down from the rafters Dance, Dance, Dance 'till you drop. — W. H. Auden

Dance is like life. It exists as you are flitting through it, and when it's over, it's done. — Jerome Robbins

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

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

Dance every performance as if it were your last. — Erik Bruhn

When she goes about her kitchen duties, chopping, carving, mixing, whisking, she moves with the grace and precision of a ballet dancer, her fingers plying the food with the dexterity of a croupier. — Craig Claiborne

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

People Writing About Classical Dance

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Read quotes by Ninette de Valois

Ninette de Valois
quotes on love, education and friendship

28 256
Read quotes by Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Pushkin
quotes on love, education and life

45 1939
Read quotes by Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland
quotes on dance, life

93 2458
Read quotes by George Balanchine

George Balanchine
quotes on love, art and life

37 1800
Read quotes by Curt Sachs

Curt Sachs
quotes on education, love

24 77
Read quotes by Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst

10 312

More Classical Dance Quotes

Even the ears must dance. — Natalia Makarova

Yeah, I always listen to both classic and newer folk-influenced music. Singer-songwriter, alternative music. I also listen to more experimental dance music. — Brad Delson

Indian classical dance is sustained by a profound philosophy. Form seeks to merge with the formless, motions seek to become a part of the motionless, and the dancing individual seeks to become one with the eternal dance of the cosmos. — Nita Ambani

Dancing is poetry with arms and legs. — Charles Baudelaire

And then you have the classical ballerinas, they're like sopranos. Applied to the dance. — Ninette de Valois

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. — Jiddu Krishnamurti

I enjoy the freedom of modern dance as well as the constraints of classical dance. — Deborah Bull

Classical virtuosity is more than technique, line, proportion, and balance. It is as if the performer and spectator come together to hold in their hands a bird with a broken wing. The creature can be felt to stir, to struggle for freedom. Its life responds to human warmth; its wing might brush your check as it flies away. — Gelsey Kirkland

You cannot dance physically certain things. But look at tango dancers or flamenco or Japanese classical theater. You can, if you're smart enough and you collaborate with the right choreographers, you could really dance your age. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

In liberal democracy and anxious anarchy, the traditional classic dance, compact of aristocratic authority and absolute freedom in a necessity of order, has never been so promising as an independent expression as it is today. — Lincoln Kirstein

I wanted to give people - which is fairly bizarre considering my whole life is contemporary dance really - I wanted to give people a really fulfilling sense that they had seen a white classical ballet - in a very pure form. — Graeme Murphy

I think classical ballet dancers dance on pointe because they're simultaneously touching the earth and reaching up to the skies — Paulo Coelho

Learn at least two classic ballroom dances, at least one of them Latin. — Marilyn vos Savant

I think it's useful to experience other types of dance and other cultures, and the life of a classical dancer these days is certainly not all tutus! So experience of other dance forms is a good idea. — Deborah Bull

when dancing is right, the movement possesss a logic common to us all, an inevitability that takes it beyond the personal and egocentric and makes of it classical art. — Twyla Tharp

When I left the theater… I was thinking that I’d seen a classic of American dance. It confers a mythic dimension on ordinary aspects of our daily lives – it’s unfaked folk art. The dancers, crashing wave upon wave into those falls, have a happy insane spirit that recalls a unique moment in American life – the time we did the school play or we were ready to drown at a swimming meet. The last time most of us were happy in that way. — Arlene Croce

Having Alexei Ratmansky create a new Romeo and Juliet for The National Ballet of Canada to mark our 60th anniversary is a dream come true. His aesthetic -- steeped in the Russian school but open to contemporary sources -- is ideal for this work and for our company, which, with our classical heritage and our passion for the modern, is perfectly suited to his distinctive dance vision. — Karen Kain

There is a general decline of taste for classical dance,ce, which is neglected and this must be developed from the grassroots. There is so much of razzle-dazzle... that classical dance suffers. — Kanak Rele

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

I grew up as a dancer. I did tap, classical ballet, all of that. I did Indian dancing, or Bharata Natyam, classic temple dancing from Madras, originally. My mother always had the great idea that I should learn it. — Roselee Goldberg

I think differently, I think it's about reaching everybody on every different plane and every different level, and if I could remix the song and do a dance remix, that's great. If I could do a classical version, that'll be great too. It's all just about expression. — Deborah Cox

You put music in categories because you need to define a sound, but when you don't play it on your so-called radio stations that claim to be R&B or jazz or whatever... All music is dance music. But when people think of dance music, they think of techno or just house. Anything you can dance to is dance music. I don't care if it's classical, funk, salsa, reggae, calypso; it's all dance music. — Afrika Bambaataa

I grew up as a dancer, and music and dance are so closely tied, that in ballet class you're listening to all this classical music, and in modern class you're working with a live drummer. It was something that always made me feel really comfortable and I've had a connection to since the beginning. — Jillian Hervey

Being a fan of dance and a dancer, I love my classic dance movies. — Stephen Boss

I know a lot of choreographers prefer to do abstract dance and not be bothered with a story, but even when I'm asked to do classical ballet or a modern piece, I still want to tell a story. — Susan Stroman

I'm not classically trained or anything, but I'll rip up a dance floor. — Beau Mirchoff

I would like to tell all dancers to forget themselves and the desire for self display. They must become completely absorbed in the dance. Even in a classical variation there should never be any thought of a dancer doing a variation--he should become identified with it. — Antony Tudor

Do you know what I've learned? That although ecstasy is the ability to stand outside yourself, dance is a way of rising up into space, of discovering new dimensions while still remaining in touch with your body. When you dance, the spiritual world and the real world manage to coexist quite happily. I think classical ballet dancers dance on pointe because they're simultaneously touching the earth and reaching up to the skies. — Paulo Coelho

Obviously neither 'American Idol' nor 'Dancing With the Stars' is a variety show in the classic sense, but the way they incorporate elements of drama, comedy and suspense is moderately ingenious. — Tom Shales

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