If our ballets be feeble, monotonous and dull, if they be devoid of ideas, meaning, expression and character, it is less the fault of the art than th…

- Jean-Georges Noverre

I will make an average man into an average dancer, provided he be passably well made. I will teach him how to move his arms and legs, to turn his hea…

- Jean-Georges Noverre

In order that our art may arrive at the degree of the sublime which I demand and hope for, it is imperative for dancers to divide their time and stud…

- Jean-Georges Noverre

It is shameful that dancing should renounce the empire it might assert over the mind and only endeavor to please the sight.

- Jean-Georges Noverre

Dancing and ballets would undoubtedly take on a new lease on life, if the customs established by a spirit of fear and jealousy did not in some way cl…

- Jean-Georges Noverre

The defect in wisdom and taste which exists among the majority of dancers is due to the bad education which they generally receive. They apply themse…

- Jean-Georges Noverre

True art consists in concealing art.

- Jean-Georges Noverre

A fine picture is but the image of nature; a finished ballet is nature herself.

- Jean-Georges Noverre

At our theaters we only see feeble copies of the copies that have proceeded them, renounce that slavish routine which keeps your art in its infancy; …

- Jean-Georges Noverre