Occupation: Ballerina Birth: May 18, 1919 Death: February 21, 1991
Traveling carries with it the curse of being at home everywhere and yet nowhere, for wherever one is some part of oneself remains on another continen….
Life offstage has sometimes been a wilderness of unpredictables in an unchoreographed world..
generally speaking, we are all happier when we are still striving for achievement than when the prize is in our hands..
Take your work seriously, but never yourself..
The world of dance is a charmed place. Some people like to inhabit it, others to behold it; either way it is rewarding..
I explained it when I danced it..
Genius is another word for magic, and the whole point of magic is that it is inexplicable..
Ballet is more than a profession - it is a way of life..
Genius is another word for magic..
I have never wanted to live to be old, so old I'd run out of friends or money..
...wherever one is, some part of oneself remains on another continent..
The world of dance is a natural world from which civilization has divorced many of us by making it appear remote - something reserved for the few who….
The essential thing about mothers is that one needs to know that they are there, particularly at that age when, paradoxically, one is trying so hard ….
There is no way anything of value can be done without some framework. It might well be that the framework is discarded or the rules opposed; that is ….
... when I left the stage door and sought my orientation among real people I was in a wilderness of unpredictables in an unchoreographed world..
Dancing was something to be taken very seriously when engaged in and otherwise put out of mind..
Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike..
Life forms illogical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever ….
I think perhaps I've learned to be myself. I have a theory that all artists who would be important - painters and writers - must learn to be themselv….
Jumping for joy' is a very basic human reaction, and a child skipping down the street is simply an untrained dancer..
The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The firs….