George Balanchine > Quotes

“I don't want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance. ”
― George Balanchine

“Why are you stingy with yourselves? Why are you holding back? What are you saving for—for another time? There are no other times. There is only now. Right now.”
― George Balanchine

“See the music, hear the dance.”
― George Balanchine

“Someone once said that dancers work just as hard as policeman, always alert, always tense. But i dont agree with that because policeman don't have to look beautiful at the same time" * ”
― George Balanchine

“Dancing is music made visible.”
― George Balanchine

“God creates, I do not create.
I assemble and I steal everywhere to do it –
from what I see, from what the dancers can do,
from what others do...”
― George Balanchine

“What are you waiting for? What are you saving for? Now is all there is.”
― George Balanchine

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

“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

“Someone once said that dancers work just as hard as policemen, always alert, always tense. But I dont agree with that because policemen don't have to look beautiful at the same time.”
― George Balanchine

“I like to do things certain ways and I disagree with everybody but I don't even want to argue.”
― George Balanchine

“Your eyes is camera and your brain is a file cabinet.”
― George Balanchine

“The choreographer and the dancer must remember
that they reach the audience through the eye.
It's the illusion created which convinces the audience,
much as it is with the work of a magician”
― George Balanchine

“I don't want people who want to dance. I want people who have to dance.”
― George Balanchine

“What are you waiting for? Now is all there is!”
― George Balanchine

“If the illusion fails, the ballet fails, no matter how well a program note tells the audience that it has succeeded.”
― George Balanchine, Choreography by George Balanchine: A catalogue of works