Yoko Ono Quotes

I began to fear that the Graham work was not in lots of ways sufficient for me. I suppose it came about from looking at other dancing and being involved with the ballet - something about the air and the way she thought about dancing.

Professional dancers are known for their barely-there costumes.

Sometimes during a ballet I'll look around and see all these rows of intent faces, concentrating on this beautiful thing up on the stage.

Some people can sit and enjoy the view... some people like to take photos to feel complete. I need to somehow possess it in some other way. I just have to somehow grasp it and take it home in a more fulsome way. It's where ideas come from.

Every great dance company, even when it seems poised in perfect balance, needs constant renewal of both repertory and performers.

Even more importantly, it's wine, food and the arts. Incorporating those three enhances the quality of life.

I would describe my dancing talents as incredibly deep.

There's this certain caliber of dancing I was striving for when I was younger, and it's very hard for me to go back and just do it for fun. But I take all other kinds of classes: I take jazz classes, modern classes, and I love doing that instead of going to the gym. The gym is not very much fun.

Some people think literature is high culture and that it should only have a small readership. I don't think so... I have to compete with popular culture, including TV, magazines, movies and video games.

I think that high art reposes on popular art, without one there cannot be another.

We like to think of film and music as art, but actually art is something that is not restricted.

I wanted to be a professional dancer for a period of time, and I did a lot of dancing and choreography and got paid for it.

The rewards of dancing are very different from choreographing.

Choreography is mentally draining, but there's a pleasure in getting into the studio with the dancers and the music.

I think you learn a lot about a country from its art. To me, it's part of the drama of life. It teaches you that there are places, moments and incidents in other cultures that genuinely have a life of their own.

We know that Diana Vishneva is a phenomenon of strength and style, and she certainly has earned the right to stretch her talents as best she can.

Most people respond to my paintings quite generously, but there have been cases where I think people - a few critics in particular - were actually moved by the work but were disturbed by the feelings it evoked, so they attacked it. Some people find the realm of my work quite uncomfortable.

I have a pretty expanded view of what art is. I include pop music and even some sports.

Every company has its style, and that's what makes the Bolshoi so impressive: their attack on jumps or their attack on choreography.

Slashing its way to the finish line, 'Black Swan' is the first ballet movie for highbrow horror fans for whom ballet itself signifies little to nothing. Those of us who know and love ballet can only look on it with a different kind of horror.

The people are not satisfied with life alone but demand literature and art as well.

I think it's one thing to be able to dance, and it's another thing to learn all the wonderful moments of dance because in my day... it was the moving of dance.

Once, the arts were opera, ballet, classical music, and everything else deemed highbrow.

I'm sorry - you know, culture is elitist. Culture has to be elitist: it's about seeing and knowing and about knowledge.

I know colors like some people know a melody. And the tunes of my favorite musicians energizes me when I work.