Jean-Georges Noverre

No matter the style, the farther one goes the more obstacles increase, and the more distant appears the object it is desired…

— Jean-Georges Noverre

The defects born of habit are innumerable. I see every child occupied in some way in disarranging and disfiguring his physique; some…

— 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

I cannot avoid condemning all those who, from self-conceit have the pretension to imitate great artists of the past. If their powers…

— Jean-Georges Noverre

The abuse of the best things is always detrimental.

— Jean-Georges Noverre

I know that applause is food for the arts, but it ceases to be wholesome if administered indiscriminately; and the nutrition is…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— Jean-Georges Noverre

When the music and dance create with accord...their magic captivates both the heart and the mind.

— Jean-Georges Noverre

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

— Jean-Georges Noverre

I should never conclude were I to speak to you of all the misfortunes which have their origin in the faulty carriage…

— 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…

— Jean-Georges Noverre

Applause lavished at a whim and without discernment, often proves the ruin of young people training for a stage career.

— Jean-Georges Noverre

In order to dance well, nothing is so important as the turning outwards of the thigh; and nothing is so natural to…

— Jean-Georges Noverre

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

— Jean-Georges Noverre

It is not a question of skimming the surface of the art, it must be probed to its depths, for to seize…

— Jean-Georges Noverre

True art consists in concealing art.

— Jean-Georges Noverre

This art, born of genius and good taste, can become beautiful and varied to an infinite degree.

— Jean-Georges Noverre