George Balanchine Quotes

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

George Balanchine

• Ballet

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Quotes to Explore

• I've always been a bit of a poser. I was chucked out of ballet lessons for looking in the mirror.

  

  Abbey Clancy
  • Always
  • Mirror
  • Looking

• The last time I had to make a career decision, I was 17. I could have gone to Ballet Theatre or National Ballet of Canada. There were options. But as I became exposed to the Robbins repertoire, I realized that there was a living genius in the house.

  

  Damian Woetzel
  • Time
  • Career
  • House

• There's nothing like the force and challenge of a new ballet to galvanize everyone involved in bringing it to life.

  

  Karen Kain
  • Life
  • Challenge
  • New

• I did community theater in Georgia and called myself a ballet dancer.

  

  Laura Slade Wiggins
  • Community
  • Myself
  • Ballet

• I started with ballet, and once I started to really like it, I got into more - I did jazz and tap, and then kept going.

  

  Maddie Ziegler
  • Jazz
  • Ballet
  • Once

• I spent a whole year in New York without going back to France. And I always came back because my mother was living in New York since I was 13. So I went to summer camps, hang out at the Roxy, go to class for ballet, so I always had part of my life in New York.

  

  Vincent Cassel
  • Life
  • Mother
  • Summer

• I was the oldest of the children in my family. I had to do a lot of diaper-changing and lunch-making. I was taking my little sister to ballet, picking up my brother, sort of being a super-nanny.

  

  Vin Diesel
  • Up
  • Children
  • Family

• It's no good running a pig farm badly for 30 years while saying, 'Really, I was meant to be a ballet dancer.' By then, pigs will be your style.

  

  Quentin Crisp
  • Good
  • Running
  • Style

• Maybe people have no idea how much work is behind a picture. It can seem very effortless, but there is a lot of work. It's exactly like doing ballet. It's hours and hours, but when you go onstage, it's just the pleasure of dancing.

  

  Carine Roitfeld
  • People
  • Work
  • Picture

• I started dancing when I was five, and I trained intensively as a competitive dancer up until the end of high school. I did all genres, and later on a did a lot of extra ballet on top of that. I actually got accepted to Julliard for dance during my senior year, but I ultimately turned it down to come to L.A. to act.

  

  Jacob Artist
  • Up
  • School
  • High

• Dancing for the length of time that I did, it centered me in such a way to be really in tune with my body, and I just feel like I'm physically able to do things because of my ballet background. Without ballet, I don't think I'd look graceful at all on screen.

  

  Zoe Saldana
  • Time
  • Way
  • Body

• I began with dance, doing ballet at 3, then tap, jazz, modern. Then I sang in church choirs, learned how to play clarinet and drums, sang with rock bands and only then did I get into musical theatre.

  

  Samantha Barks
  • Church
  • Rock
  • Dance

• I just don't do much social media. No, it is more important to strike a balance between ballet and real life.

  

  Yuan Yuan Tan
  • Life
  • Important
  • Real

• Ballet might be too formal of a title for the type of dance I do, but I love to dance. I love to draw and paint; I do ceramics and photography. I'm interested in a lot of creative stuff.

  

  Jeff Bridges
  • Dance
  • Photography
  • Ballet

• I mean, I'm an uncle of seven or eight, and I don't mind it at all! Kids are great. Kids are the best six-hour experience you can have!

  

  Chris O'Dowd
  • Great
  • Mind
  • Experience

• Dancing is a tough career, but I'm glad I spent it at the Royal Ballet.

  

  Deborah Bull
  • Career
  • Ballet

• I love dance; that's a big part of my life - like, ballet specifically.

  

  Kerris Dorsey
  • Life
  • Dance
  • Ballet

• 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. Their feet are arched.

  

  Christian Louboutin
  • Shoes
  • Ballet

• My mum took me to the ballet at three, and that was the only time I sat still, with jaw open, mesmerised. She brought me home, and I wouldn't stop dancing.

  

  Emma Rigby
  • Time
  • Home
  • She

• The competition has improved tremendously. In 2003, I could teach a guy how to play poker in an hour and he could win some money. Today, it would take days. The game has gotten so much tougher. So I will spend my time with my family and play when I can.

  

  Chris Moneymaker
  • Time
  • Family
  • Money

• Unbelievable as it may seem, one-third of all vegetables consumed in the United States come from just three sources: french fries, potato chips, and iceberg lettuce.

  

  Marion Nestle
  • May
  • United States
  • Vegetables

• Teachers believe they have a gift for giving; it drives them with the same irrepressible drive that drives others to create a work of art or a market or a building.

  

  A. Bartlett Giamatti
  • Work
  • Believe
  • Art

• The truth is that there is no actual stress or anxiety in the world; it's your thoughts that create these false beliefs. You can't package stress, touch it, or see it. There are only people engaged in stressful thinking.

  

  Wayne Dyer
  • People
  • World
  • Thinking

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

  

  George Balanchine
  • Ballet