Jean-Georges Noverre Quotes
When the music and dance create with accord...their magic captivates both the heart and the mind.
A fine picture is but the image of nature; a finished ballet is nature herself.
It is shameful that dancing should renounce the empire it might assert over the mind and only endeavor to please the sight.
This art, born of genius and good taste, can become beautiful and varied to an infinite degree.
In order to dance well, nothing is so important as the turning outwards of the thigh; and nothing is so natural to men as the contrary position.
If our ballets be feeble, monotonous and dull, if they be devoid of ideas, meaning, expression and character, it is less the fault of the art than that of the artist.
It is not a question of skimming the surface of the art, it must be probed to its depths, for to seize upon superficial things only is to degenerate into mediocrity and obscurity.
Dancing and ballets would undoubtedly take on a new lease on life, if the customs established by a spirit of fear and jealousy did not in some way close the path of glory.
Applause lavished at a whim and without discernment, often proves the ruin of young people training for a stage career.
I cannot avoid condemning all those who, from self-conceit have the pretension to imitate great artists of the past. If their powers of emotion be weak, their powers of expression will be likewise.
