Ninette de Valois

You can't dance until you've learnt steps, the things your feet can do.

— Ninette de Valois

Somebody must always be doing something new, or life would get very dull.

— Ninette de Valois

Nothing is done easily, first have the thing, then the thing has a success, then all sorts of difficulties arise through the…

— Ninette de Valois

Classical ballet will never die.

— Ninette de Valois

All Ballets' fundamental steps are derived from the folk dances of Western Europe.

— Ninette de Valois

There's nothing in the world that isn't good, bad, and indifferent.

— Ninette de Valois

You cannot create genius. All you can do is nurture it.

— Ninette de Valois

No no, we ALL teach each other, whether it's dancing, whether it's singing, whether it's talking, we all listen to each other.…

— Ninette de Valois

God gave us all exactly the same fingers, arms, legs, and feet, but in our different countries we divided them all a…

— Ninette de Valois

You never advance without losing something en passant... you lose it because you're paying so much attention to the new thing.

— Ninette de Valois

Nearly everything in life goes in threes and fours.

— Ninette de Valois

Well, I mean, we are developing the other parts, and we can't give quite all our attention to the upper part, but…

— Ninette de Valois

We are developing the other parts, and we can't give quite all our attention to the upper part, but soon the lower…

— Ninette de Valois

The smile is the dance of the face - the dance is the smile of the limbs.

— Ninette de Valois

It's either not good enough and dies altogether, or it develops.

— Ninette de Valois

As time goes on, all schools only get left alive if they have found something special themselves.

— Ninette de Valois

You can't stop what comes into a country, you can be influenced, but you can't stop it, you shouldn't, because it makes…

— Ninette de Valois

So it takes years to make a solid company.

— Ninette de Valois

It is a fact that all the ballet's fundamental dance steps are derived from the folk dances of Western Europe.

— Ninette de Valois

All the children in the school should learn the steps of everything, before they learn the thing, then they know which step…

— Ninette de Valois

Oh yes, after the war, and we were all starving - we had no proper food or anything - no proper shoes.

— Ninette de Valois

And then you have the classical ballerinas, they're like sopranos. Applied to the dance.

— Ninette de Valois

Exactly the same with dancing, you can't dance until you've learnt steps, the things your feet can do.

— Ninette de Valois

Also, if you have an accident, you can't start to dance again at the top, you're too weak; you start with the…

— Ninette de Valois

The best way to study is to go to the Cecchetti method for about a year and draw onto all the highest…

— Ninette de Valois