Ballet Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old ballet quotes, ballet sayings, and ballet proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Learning ballet is wonderful for children even if they never become dancers. It is wonderful because it teaches discipline, grace, and manners. Anna Paskevska
Ballet is created on beautiful lines and shapes. If what you hear and what you see mesh, there's a very thrilling experience. Martin Fridmann
I think most dancers would agree that the art of ballet chooses the dancer, not the other way around. Kevin Mckenzie
You go to the ballet and you see girls dancing on their tiptoes. Why don't they just get taller girls? Greg Ray
Ballet is not technique but a way of expression that comes more closely to the inner language of man than any other. George Borodin
Ballet technique is arbitrary and very difficult. It never becomes easy; it becomes possible. Agnes De Mille
Ballet is a dance executed by the human soul. Alexander Pushkin
You don't have to know about ballet to enjoy it, all you have to do is look at it. Edwin Denby
Ballet is important and significant - yes. But first of all it is a pleasure. George Balanchine
Ballet is only good when it is great. Arlene Croce
Ballet class is like Life Lessons 101. You learn some of life's most important lessons here that you will carry with you forever. Joanne H. Morscher
Ballet is the one form of theater where nobody speaks a foolish word all evening, nobody on the stage at least. Edwin Denby
Most people think of ballet as children in little tutus. They don't know it is sweat, blood and tears as well! Nan Keating
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 good, because it makes you stand up tall. Carine Roitfeld
Ballet is like any other art form in that we all start out knowing nothing about it. Robert Gottlieb
If ballet was easy, then everyone would be doing it. unknown
The domain of the ballet dancer is not earth but air. Lincoln Kirstein
In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell... we can't dance synonyms. George Balanchine
Ballet is the fairies' baseball. Oscar Levant
Ballet is purifying, every movement physically honed and essential, with no superfluity or excess. Jennifer Homans
Ballet is a universe of the imagination, a place of magic and enchantment, beauty and romance. Its many worlds vibrate with graceful dancers, glorious music, and sumptuous costumes. Trudy Garfunkel
The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener. George Balanchine
The ballet embodies the notes of music. And sometimes you almost feel like you can see the notes dance up there on the stage. Robert Caro
The ballet needs to tell its own story in such a way it can be received without having to be translated into language. Twyla Tharp
At the ballet, you really feel like you're in the presence of something outside the rest of your life. Higher than the rest of your life. Robert Caro
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 is such a disciplined craft and it has given me a good grounding. Jennifer Ellison
A fine picture is but the image of nature; a finished ballet is nature herself. Jean-Georges Noverre
Ballet will speak for itself. About itself. George Balanchine
You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive. Merce Cunningham
And even this heart of mine has something artificial. The dancers have sewn it into a bag of pink satin, pink satin slightly faded, like their dancing shoes. Edgar Degas
When ballet takes to the sea, even the sunset comes to take a sneak peak. Anthony T. Hincks
Ballet shoes... I cannot play with them like they're toys. But when the music is playing they get deep on my toes. Ana Claudia Antunes
Ballet: something pure in this crazy world. Misty Copeland
Beauty, like male ballet dancers, makes some men afraid. Mordecai Richler
If a ballet dancer falls over, it's knowing how to get out looking clumsy that counts. Ritchie Blackmore
There's nothing like the force and challenge of a new ballet to galvanize everyone involved in bringing it to life. Karen Kain
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 increase muscle bulk by training against resistance. For example, weights. And in ballet, this isn't the case. Deborah Bull
Being a former dancer, classical dancer, it informed me as a human being just in terms of the grace I guess. Ballet is a very graceful form of art. You also become very aware of your body and your mind and your body is working in conjunction. Zoe Saldana
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
Some people think that movements, such as the movements in ballet, are a higher cultural expression, whereas some are just dirt. I think it is elitist to think that a trained movement is more acceptable than untrained and possibly unrehearsed movements. Yoko Ono
A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I'm beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things. Twyla Tharp
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. Christian Louboutin
The discipline that ballet requires is obsessive. And only the ones who dedicate their whole lives are able to make it. Your toenails fall off and you peel them away and then you're asked to dance again and keep smiling. I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer. Penelope Cruz
It's no good running a pig farm badly for 30 years while saying, 'Really, I was meant to be a ballet dance.' By then, pigs will be your style. Quentin Crisp
Even the ears must dance. Natalia Makarova
Technical perfection is insufficient. It is an orphan without the true soul of the dancer. Sylvie Guillem
When other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers, I kind of wanted to be a vampire. Angelina Jolie
Non-cooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment, but if cooking is evanescent, well, so is the ballet. Julia Child
Ballet is like writing poetry with your body. Elif Shafak
To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful… This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking. Agnes De Mille
They all owe their success to ballet because it gives them discipline and grace, it embodies our emotions, it's breathtaking in its beauty, and most importantly, it expresses what cannot be put into words. Louis Litt
I do ballet because it has nothing to do with the people. Give me tiaras and boys in tights any day. Erik Jones
Ballet is fine conditioning. Every woman should have an air of delicate grace. Dean Martha Stone
Classical ballet, modern dance, theatrical dancing. Today, we see these styles dance overlapping, borrowing steps and movements from each other. This, I believe, is wonderful. We all to learn from each other, bringing more joy and satisfaction to the audience. Mikhail Baryshnikov
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
It's a gutter ballet / Just a menagerie / Still the orchestra plays / On a dark and lonely night / To a distant fading light. Christopher M. Oliva; John N. Oliva; Paul O'Neill
Ballerinas are always on their toes. Why don't they just get taller ballerinas? Steven Wright