George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchinewas one of the 20th century's most prominent choreographers. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionChoreographer
Date of Birth22 January 1904
CitySaint Petersburg, Russia
CountryRussian Federation
believe ballet movement
I can always invent movement, and sometimes it can be fitted into the right place, but that is not choreography. It is the music that dictates the whole shape of the work. I do not believe in the permanence of anything in ballet save the purely classical.
art believe independent
We must first realize that dancing is an absolutely independent art, not merely a secondary accompanying one. I believe that it is one of the great arts. . . . The important thing in ballet is the movement itself. A ballet may contain a story, but the visual spectacle . . . is the essential element. 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.
assemble dancers everywhere god steal
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.
beauty lucky
First comes the sweat. Then comes the beauty - if you're very lucky and have said your prayers.
dancer born
One is born to be a great dancer.
literature approach
I have no literary approach - except to literature.
men function
The woman's function is to fascinate men.
dance ballet stories
In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell ... we can't dance synonyms.
dance clouds trousers
I am a cloud - in trousers.
girl strong elephants
The pointes for girls, I always say, have to be like an elephant's trunk; strong and yet flexible and soft.
dance unions muse
My muse must come to me on union time.
dance teacher medicine
Most ballet teachers in the United States are terrible. If they were in medicine, everyone would be poisoned.
dancing gestures poet
They are poets of gesture.
eye brain cabinets
Your eyes is camera and your brain is a file cabinet.