The beauty to which the Dance ought to aspire is not dependent upon taste or pleasure, but is founded on the immutable laws of Nature.

- August Bournonville

The art of Mime encompasses all the feelings of the soul. The Dance, on the other hand, is essentially an expression of joy, a desire to follow the r…

- August Bournonville

It is not so much upon the number of exercises, as the care with which they are done, that progreses and skill depend.

- August Bournonville

The height of artistic skill is to know how to conceal the mechanical effort and strain beneath harmonious calm.

- August Bournonville

Joy is a strength; intoxication, a weakness.

- August Bournonville

The Dance is an art because it demands vocation, knowledge, and ability.

- August Bournonville

The beauty to which the Dance ought to aspire

- August Bournonville

Mannerism is not character, and affectation is the avowed enemy of grace. Every dancer ought to regard his laborious art as a link in the chain of be…

- August Bournonville

The Dance can, with the aid of music, rise to the heights of poetry. On the other hand, through an excess of gymnastics it can also degenerate into b…

- August Bournonville