Top 11 Quotes by 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.

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

Dance, Exercise, Skills

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

Dance, Skills, Effort

August Bournonville (1979). “My theatre life”, Wesleyan

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 rhythms of the music.

August Bournonville

Dance, Art, Expression

August Bournonville (1979). “My theatre life”, Wesleyan

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 buffoonery. So-called "difficult" feats can be executed by countless adepts, but the appearance of ease is achieved only by the chosen few.

August Bournonville

Dance, Gymnastics, Hands

August Bournonville (1979). “My theatre life”, Wesleyan

The beautiful always retains the freshness of novelty, while the astonishing soon grow tiresome.

August Bournonville

Beautiful, Dance, Novelty

August Bournonville (1979). “My theatre life”, Wesleyan

It is a fine art because it strives for an ideal, not only in plastic but also in lyrical respect.

August Bournonville

Dance, Art, Strive

August Bournonville (1979). “My theatre life”, Wesleyan

Joy is a strength; intoxication, a weakness.

August Bournonville

Dance, Joy, Weakness

August Bournonville (1979). “My theatre life”, Wesleyan

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

August Bournonville

Dance, Art, Demand

August Bournonville (1979). “My theatre life”, Wesleyan

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

Dance, Law, Taste

August Bournonville (1979). “My theatre life”, Wesleyan

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 beauty, as a useful ornament for the stage, and this, in turn, as an important element in the spiritual development of nations.

August Bournonville

Dance, Spiritual, Art

August Bournonville (1979). “My theatre life”, Wesleyan