These ballet quotes will give deeper meaning to the value that dance brings into one’s life.
Ballet is a form of dance associated with elegant, light, and graceful movements. It is an art that requires a lot of discipline and patience to execute flawlessly.
Seeing how dancers move and glide across the stage makes you understand how much hard work and dedication it took to perfect their movements.
In fact, as one of the most technical and intricate dance forms, ballet can be physically and emotionally taxing on the dancer.
But, many still want to learn it to enhance their balance and flexibility and, of course, to express themselves fully.
After all, ballet goes beyond what you see because it usually carries some deeper story.
Moreover, ballet teaches us a lot about life. The focus and grit you need are honed to lead you to success no matter what path you take.
So, read through our collection below to learn more about it.
Start reading here.
And don’t forget to check out these fitness quotes and dance quotes.
Best Ballet Quotes
1. “Ballet is a dance executed by the human soul.” – Alexander Pushkin
2. “Ballet is the best example of art that can fly itself and at the same time make those who watch it fly with admiration!” – Mehmet Murat İldan
3. “Ballet is like a rose. It is beautiful, and you admire it, but you don’t ask what it means.” – George Balanchine
4. “Ballet is a perfect medium for the expression of spiritual love.” – Ayn Rand
5. “I think most dancers would agree that the art of ballet chooses the dancer, not the other way around.” – Kevin McKenzie
6. “The ballet is a purely female thing. It is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener.” – George Balanchine
7. “Ballet is a universe of the imagination, a place of magic, and enchantment, beauty, and romance.” – Trudy Garfunkel
8. “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
9. “You don’t have to know about ballet to enjoy it. All you have to do is look at it.” – Edwin Denby
10. “Ballet is purifying, every movement physically honed and essential, with no superfluity or excess.” – Jennifer Homans
11. “Ballet is not just movement, not simply abstract. It’s something beautiful. Sometimes, there’s this feeling in the movement that makes me want to cry.” – Nina Ananiashvili
12. “When ballet takes to the sea, even the sunset comes to take a sneak peek.” – Anthony T. Hincks
13. “Ballet is not a technique but a way of expression that comes more closely to the inner language of man than any other.” – George Borodin
14. “Ballet resides in your bones. It courses through your blood. For a dancer, it is the very essence of our identity, stripped down to its rawest, most intrinsic parts. You cannot leave it behind no more than you could forsake your own soul. Feel it. Feel the exquisite pain that comes from the purest form of love, for that is what it means to dance ballet.” – M.A. Kuzniar
15. “Ballet is important and significant, yes. But first of all, it is a pleasure.” – George Balanchine
Ballet Quotes to Learn About the Art of Dancing
16. “Ballet is like writing poetry with your body.” – Elif Shafak
17. “Everything cannot be conveyed by ballet, only those things which can be shown on the stage.” – George Balanchine
18. “Ballet technique is arbitrary and very difficult. It never becomes easy—it becomes possible.” – Agnes De Mille
19. “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
20. “Ballet is ultimately a logical technique. It favors the shortest, most efficient route from one position into another.” – Anna Paskevska
21. “Ballet is such a disciplined craft, and it has given me a good grounding.” – Jennifer Ellison
22. “Ballet is created on beautiful lines and shapes.” – Martin Fridmann
23. “You can’t put ballet into words. That’s why we dance.” – Suzanne Farrell
24. “A ballerina takes steps given to her and makes them her own.” – Maria Tallchief
25. “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.” – Jean-Georges Noverre
26. “A fine picture is but the image of nature. A finished ballet is nature herself.” – Jean-Georges Noverre
27. “Ballet is the body rising. Ballet is ceremonial and hieratic.” – Camille Paglia
28. “There are two basic elements to classical ballet. They are quality and quantity. Quantity is how much a dancer can physically do, the element that gives an artist the freedom to concentrate on quality, while quality is how he or she does it. Quality of movement, the most difficult phase, requires long and arduous training.” – Igor Schwezoff
Short Ballet Quotes to Understand This Unique Dance Form
29. “Ballet is a framed painting with legs.” – Ranulfo
30. “All ballet is dance, but not all dance is ballet.” – Robin Rinaldi
31. “Ballet: something pure in this crazy world.” – Misty Copeland
32. “Ballet will speak for itself.” – George Balanchine
33. “Ballet is good because it makes you stand up tall.” – Carine Roitfeld
34. “Beauty, like male ballet dancers, makes some men afraid.” – Mordecai Richler
35. “Ballet dancing is an arduous, strenuous activity.” – George Balanchine
36. “Plié is the first thing you learn and the last thing you master.” – Suzanne Farrell
37. “A real ballerina must fill her space with her own personality.” – Natalia Makarova
38. “Everything is beautiful at the ballet.” – A Chorus Line
Ballet Quotes That Highlight the Beauty of Light Movements
39. “Only angels and ballerinas dance on their toes.” – David Ira Rottenberg
40. “Learning ballet is wonderful for children because it teaches discipline, grace, and manners.” – Anna Paskevska
41. “The domain of the ballet dancer is not earth but air.” – Lincoln Kirstein
42. “Seen from the wings, a ballerina’s life is made up of sheer physical misery relieved only by the euphoria of performance. Physical agony is a normal thing backstage and arouses the awe and pity only of outsiders unused to its sight.” – Anonymous
43. “Poise is the finest point of balance it is possible to attain, both mentally and physically. The various parts of the physique having been adjusted truly to the center of gravity, poise lifts the whole being to a point so delicate that it almost defies definition.” – Ruby Ginner
44. “What’s so wonderful about ballet is that it’s almost a Greek ideal of body, mind, and form.” – Edward Villella
45. “When one lifts a ballerina, it is not her weight but her nature that causes the problem.” – Māris Liepa
Ballet Quotes That Will Teach You About Its Technicalities
46. “If our ballets are feeble, monotonous, and dull, if they are devoid of ideas, meaning, expression, and character, it is less the fault of the art than that of the artist.” – Jean-Georges Noverre
47. “On the plié and rélevé is based the whole structure of the classical ballet.” – Christian Johansson
48. “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
49. “Classical language and musicality are not simply effete traditions belonging to the bygone upper classes. 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.” – Marsha B. Siegel
50. “A pas de deux is a dialogue of love. How can there be a conversation if one partner is dumb?” – Rudolf Nureyev
51. “Once a ballet is set, it’s written in stone. The steps become a sacred text to be varied only by the inflections of interpretation. Productions or performers straying further are, in most cases, considered irresponsible or self-indulgent.” – Tobi Tobias
52. “It’s a plié. You do it in all the positions. It’s very good for dramatic moments.” – Anne Ursu
53. “The mechanics of épaulement are what gives ballet its inner transitions.” – William Forsythe
54. “A toe shoe is as eccentric as the ballerina who wears it: their marriage is a commitment.” – Toni Bentley
Poetic Ballet Quotes to Think About
55. “Ballet is a jealous god demanding a self-immolation that includes the sacrifice of personal love.” – Tobi Tobias
56. “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
57. “Ballerinas are conditioned from a young age to accept self-sacrifice as an integral part of the art form.” – Deirdre A. Kelly
58. “At the ballet, you really feel like you’re in the presence of something outside the rest of your life.” – Robert Caro
59. “The discipline that ballet requires is obsessive. Only the ones who dedicate their whole lives are able to make it.” – Penélope Cruz
60. “Letting go of perfectionism, so ingrained in the nature of a ballet dancer, can be the most difficult thing.” – Marsha B. Siegel
61. “In ballet, a complicated story is impossible to tell. We can’t dance synonyms.” – George Balanchine
62. “Dancing makes me see everything clearer, and it is a challenge that you make with yourself to keep improving every day. In ballet, you are never good enough. You are constantly trying to be better. I love that!” – Emily Ricca
Funny Ballet Quotes
63. “People say about ballet that our daily physical routine is like working in a coal mine.” – Diana Vishneva
64. “Ballet is the one form of theater where nobody speaks a foolish word all evening, nobody on the stage at least.” – Edwin Denby
65. “Ballet is not a film, so when there’s a live broadcast, I feel unusual emotions.” – Svetlana Zakharova
65. “I do ballet because it has nothing to do with the people. Give me tiaras and boys in tights any day.” – Erik Jones
67. “All ballet galas are unbearable, but they’re unbearable in different ways.” – Robert Gottlieb
More Ballet Quotes for All Dancers
68. “Ballet dancers are a self-chosen elite. To survive and surmount years of disciplinary preparation and seasons of even more arduous performance requires rigid determination and almost mindless self-abnegation. One other factor is difficult to predetermine: without a certain admixture of hysteria, sometimes masking as self-obsession, sometimes even counterfeiting incipient madness, performers, at once acrobats, artists, and animals, make little public impression.” – Lincoln Kirstein
69. “In classical ballet, there are certain rules. I can’t be an ordinary contemporary woman. I can only be a princess.” – Natalia Osipova
70. “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
What Piqued Your Interest in Ballet?
Everyone knows that dreams and goals in life are challenging to reach. Most of us will not succeed in just one try because the process of learning about our mistakes and failures is crucial to let us grow.
The pains that we experience in ballet remind us that, like all things, practicing every day and never giving up is key to achieving your dreams. Ballet, then, is a perfect reflection of how hard we must work to be able to live our wants in life.
Hopefully, these quotes were able to inspire you to push your boundaries and persevere like a true ballerina. Remember that there is no easy path toward a remarkable and well-lived life. So, do your best and never give up!
Which ballet quote is your favorite? Do you dance ballet? Comment below!
