49 Ballet Quotes to Keep Up Your Poise and Persistence

Love or hate it; ballet has remained popular among the general public for ages because it has a deep appeal to enough people to keep it relevant and alive. Read the 49 ballet quotes below to find out more.

While many find ballet to be a bore, some are enchanted when watching the dancers perform their pirouettes onstage in an effortless manner―or so it seems.

Backstage and as many know, the ballet industry is notorious for how challenging it is on the body and mind, and no matter how hard one works or pushes themselves, one may still end up at the bottom.

It is no secret that eating disorders remain an issue within this industry as aspiring dancers push for what is deemed the correct body for their profession. Read the following 49 quotes as an ode to the pain behind the beauty of ballet.

Erol Ozan’s quote: "Dancing is creating a sculpture that is visible only for a moment.” | Image: AmoDays

The Beauty of Ballet Quotes

"When ballet takes to the sea, even the sunset comes to take a sneak peek." — Anthony T. Hinck

"And even this heart of mine has something artificial. The dancers have sewn it into a bag of pink satin, pink satin slightly faded, like their dancing shoes." ― Edgar Degas

"Ballet is like a rose. It is beautiful, and you admire it, but you don't ask what it means." ― George Balanchine

"There is just a certain breathlessness to a great ballet performance." ― Dawn C. Crouch

"Dancing is creating a sculpture that is visible only for a moment." ― Erol Ozan

What Ballet Truly Is Quotes

Anthony T. Hinck’s quote: "When ballet takes to the sea, even the sunset comes to take a sneak peek." | Image: AmoDays

"Dance is very, very old. With Louis XIV at Versailles is where ballet started." — Neve Campbell

"Ballet is the body rising. Ballet is ceremonial and hieratic." — Camille Paglia

"Ballet is a dance executed by the human soul." — Alexander Pushkin

"The ballet is a purely female thing. It is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener." — George Balanchine

“Ballet … was a system of movement as rigorous and complex as any language. Like Latin or ancient Greek, it had rules, conjugations, and declensions. Its laws, moreover, were not arbitrary; they corresponded to the laws of nature. Getting it 'right' was not a matter of opinion or tastes: ballet was a hard science with demonstrable physical facts. It was also, and just as appealingly, full of emotions and the feelings that come with music and movement...If the coordination and musicality, muscular impulse, and timing were exactly right, the body would take over. I could let go. For all its rules and limits, [ballet is] an escape from the self. Being free." ― Jennifer Homans

Neve Campbell’s quote: "Dance is very, very old. With Louis XIV at Versailles is where ballet started." | Image: AmoDays

"Ballet is purifying, every movement physically honed and essential, with no superfluity or excess." ― Jennifer Homans

"Ballet is ultimately a logical technique; it favors the shortest, most efficient route from one position into another." ― Anna Paskevska

Funny Ballet Quotes

"Ballet is the fairies' baseball." — Oscar Levant

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize they made shoes for emo ballerinas!" ― Jacqueline E. Smith, "Shipwreck Girl"

George Balanchine’s quote: "There are no mothers-in-law in ballet." | Image: AmoDays

"I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn't mine." ― Rita Rudner

"Wrestling is ballet with violence." ― Jesse Ventura

"I'm bored stiff by ballet. I can't bear those muscular white legs like unbaked plaited loaves, and I get quite hysterical every time one of the women sticks out her leg at right angles, and the man suddenly grabs it and walks round in a circle as though he were opening a tin." ― Jilly Cooper

"I don't understand anything about the ballet; all I know is that during the intervals, the ballerinas stink like horses." ― Anton Chekhov

"There are no mothers-in-law in ballet." — George Balanchine

Quotes about the Pains and Challenges of Ballet

Laurence BL’s quote: “I loved ballet because it translates so harmoniously the dual relationship between beauty and pain." | Image: AmoDays

"Ballet is completely unnatural to the body, just being turned out… it's not the way your body is supposed to function, so you actually […] train your body to be a different structure than you were born with." ― Neve Campbell

"Ballet technique is arbitrary and very difficult." ― Agnes De Mille

"Sometimes I'd complain about the pain in my feet, and he'd say I should quit if it hurt so much. I don't think he understood that it was all worth it, sore feet and ankles included." ― Brandy Colbert, "Pointe"

"I loved ballet because it translates so harmoniously the dual relationship between beauty and pain." ― Laurence BL

Quotes about Personal Experiences with Ballerinas

"Being one of the few African American women to make it to this level in a classical ballet company, the level of American Ballet Theatre, takes a lot of perseverance." ― Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland’s quote: "Finding ballet was like finding this missing piece of myself." | Image: AmoDay

"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, Midnight in Everwood

"I wanted to be a ballet teacher." ― Jaclyn Smith

"I toured the Middle Eastern countries with the ballet." ― Leslie Caron

"Finding ballet was like finding this missing piece of myself." ― Misty Copeland

Tommy Lee’s quote: “When I was a little kid, I took tap and ballet. I’ve always loved to dance. I’m a rhythm machine.” | Image: AmoDays

"I started taking ballet lessons when I was 4, and I was performing in ballet companies when I was 10, and I did summer stock in Miami Beach when I was 12, and finally I said, 'I gotta go to Broadway.'" ― Rita Rudner

"I used to do ballet all the time, and I do this ballet workout: it is an amazing thing called Barrecore. It is like pulsing. It turns your legs into, like, jelly, and you feel like a Bambi; you lose so much control over your body because you're pulsing so much." ― Rita Ora

"I took several years of dance lessons that included ballet, tap, and jazz. They helped a great deal with body control, balance, a sense of rhythm, and timing." ― Lynn Swann

"My sister was in ballet growing up. I spent almost the entirety of 7 through 12 backstage at Lincoln Center, just running around, waiting for 'The Nutcracker' to end." ― Timothee Chalamet

Arlene Croce’s quote: “Ballet is only good when it is great.” | Image: AmoDays

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More Quotes about Ballet

"Sometimes during a ballet, I'll look around and see all these rows of intent faces, concentrating on this beautiful thing up on the stage." ― Robert Caro

"Respect your body. Eat well. Dance forever." ― Eliza Gaynor Minden

"Great dancers are not great because of their technique; they are great because of their passion." ― Martha Graham

"Ballet is only good when it is great." — Arlene Croce

Angelina Jolie’s quote: “When other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers, I kind of wanted to be a vampire.” | Image: AmoDays

"The real American type can never be a ballet dancer. The legs are too long, the body too supple, and the spirit too free for this school of affected grace and toe walking." ― Isadora Duncan

"I'm enamored with the art world. Anytime you look at anything that's considered artistic, there's a commercial world around it: the ballet, opera, any kind of music. It can't exist without it." ― Steve Martin

"Classical ballet will never die." ― Ninette de Valois

"Every dancer knows that being technically perfect isn't good enough. We need to know why we dance. For me, it's to be connected. I'm inspired by my friends." ― Sammy Lieberman

"Please send me your last pair of shoes, worn out with dancing, as you mentioned in your letter, so that I might have something to press against my heart." ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

George Balanchine’s quote: “In my ballets, woman is first. Men are consorts. God made men to sing the praises of women. They are not equal to men: They are better.” | Image: AmoDays

"Look at a football field. It looks like a big movie screen. This is theatre. Football combines the strategy of chess. It's part ballet. It's part battleground, part playground. We clarify, amplify and glorify the game with our footage, the narration, and that music, and in the end, create an inspirational piece of footage." ― Steve Sabol

"Technical perfection is insufficient. It is an orphan without the true soul of the dancer." ― Sylvie Guillem

"When other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers, I kind of wanted to be a vampire." — Angelina Jolie

"In my ballets, woman is first. Men are consorts. God made men to sing the praises of women. They are not equal to men: They are better." — George Balanchine

Alexander Pushkin's quote: "Ballet is a dance executed by the human soul." | Image: AmoDays

There have been many films made about ballerinas and the ballet industry. One acclaimed film is the movie "Black Swan" starring Natalie Portman. In this film, the main character and ballerina begins to slip into insanity in an effort to be perfect for her role in the ballet "Swan Lake" by Tchaikovsky.

Ballerina or not, many of us are perfectionists due to the underlying belief that if we do not get everything exactly right, then there is something inherently wrong with us. If you feel this way, boost your confidence by reading 40 diva quotes for radiating confidence.