Quotes by Sylvie Guillem - Page 2

Dancers are trained to be disciplined to do what they are told, but I knew that time goes by, and I didn't want to make the mistakes of the others.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Time Goes By
Dancers
Disciplined
Trained
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The first time I took a plane to dance in front of an audience outside France was when I was in the Paris Opera Ballet School, and we flew to Japan.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Ballet
Flew
Japan
Opera
Plane
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My mother really pushed me when I was young. I didn't want to go to dance classes, but for some reason, when I was there, I didn't want to come back.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Me Dance Mother
Classes
Dance Classes
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A drop of water can't stop a fire alone. But a drop of water, plus another one, plus another one, then you have the rain, and the rain can stop the fire.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Plus
Rain
Drop
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I have a strong sense of injustice and not admitting things just because that is the way someone says it should be. I need to understand. I need to agree.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Admitting
Injustice
Strong Sense
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Dancers, you know, they have pain everywhere: ankles in the morning, or back or neck or ribs or knees or the muscles. You are never free of pain, you know.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Ankles
Muscles
Ribs
Neck
Dancers
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I would have loved to work with Cranko. I love stories. Even though I like a lot of style - Forsythe, Maliphant - I have this childish side that likes stories.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Childish
Love Stories
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I am a bit of a boss, even when it's about the composting. This goes here! This goes there! Don't do that! Maybe for the sake of others, I should let go a bit.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Boss
Sake
Let Go
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I'm not a social animal, and I had a reputation that came before me of being very difficult, of screaming at everybody, so people tended to keep their distance.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Distance
Reputation
Me Keep People
Me Difficult People
Screaming
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Things that make me angry and sad, I cannot hide. It's not because I want to be a rebel; it's my instinct. When something touches me deeply, I really have to react.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Instinct
Hide
React
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No, dance is not a monster. The stage is monstrous, not in the negative sense but on the grandiose side. And dance is sacred as something emotionally strong happens.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Monsters
Negative
Strong
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Dancers are not like movie actresses. People look at our bodies, not our faces. They only recognise me when I sign my name on something and they say, 'Ah yes, Sylvie.'
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Faces
Recognise
Me Look People
Ah
Dancers
Look Me People
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When I watch dance, most of the time I just see a potential that is not there at all. I just see they missed the point. They just give us a tiny bit of what it could be.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Dance
Tiny
Bit
Watch
Missed
Point
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When you improvise alone, you don't risk a lot, but doing an improvisation when you are two is even more difficult because you need to listen exactly to understand what is going to happen.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Improvisation
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As a professional ballet dancer, I have to accept that weekends are about work. The notion of a leisurely break with all the buzz and excitement of a Friday night simply doesn't exist for me.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Ballet
Ballet Dancer
Buzz
Excitement
Friday
Friday Night
Notion
Work Me Night
Leisurely
Weekends
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I think it's going to be the most difficult thing to do, to leave the stage. But if you have no lucidity about it, it's even worse because you don't see the negative side of you still being onstage.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Difficult Thing
Even Worse
Most Difficult Thing
Onstage
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One has to learn to say, 'Wait, there is a pain that is not logical. I will do a scan, and if there is something serious, I will stop immediately.' If the body sends a message, you have to listen to it.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Logical
Scan
Sends
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Walking in the mountains helps me unwind, but it also reminds me in a painful way that the real beauty in life is nature and animals, and that the human race, in all its arrogance, is intent on destroying it.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Arrogance
Destroying
Human Race
Painful
Real Beauty
Unwind
Beauty Life Nature
Animals
Mountains
Helps
Intent
Reminds
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'Swan Lake' can be a nightmare. To make a 'Swan Lake' that is worth it, every single movement and breath has to be perfect. When you have an idea of 'Swan Lake' that is as high as that, it's almost impossible.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Nightmare
Worth It
Lake
Swan
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When I was 25, it was painful. I was getting out of bed in the morning and couldn't walk. But when you are young, you don't care; it will pass. But one year after another, it's like, 'Come on, give me a break!'
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Give Me
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For someone like me, who as a kid could not have two people in front of me without wanting to hide, to end up on stage with a lot of people in front of me, feeling good, it has to be a strange and special place.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Good Me People
Feeling Good
Hide
Special Place
Two People
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At school, either gymnastics or dance, it was the same. It gave me pleasure to move. And then, when I worked to achieve something new and out of the ordinary, it made me feel good. I felt I had surpassed myself.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Feel Good
Gymnastics
Ordinary
Something New
Good Myself Me
Good Myself Feel Good
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While I enjoy it, I will continue to go onstage. While I contribute something, fine. I don't want to be dragging my feet. I don't want to become pathetic, but I think I will be lucid enough. I'll know when to stop.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Pathetic
Contribute
Dragging
Lucid
Onstage
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The best times are when the time on stage becomes much slower and the movement much bigger - in that case, everything seems to flow. This state does not happen very often, but when it does, it is a magic kind of pleasure.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Bigger
Flow
Magic
Movement
Pleasure
Seems
Stage
Becomes
Case
Happen
Slower
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I can't have friends in every port. I have to work very hard and be very clear about what I want to do. I cannot just swallow everything I am told. I have to decide what I want to become part of my luggage - and what I don't.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Luggage
Port
Work I Am Hard
Swallow
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It would be nice to wake up and be able to walk to the bathroom. But even when I was 20 and at the Paris Opera, I had to crawl down the stairs; it is only when I start to work and stretch that my body begins to recover again.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Bathroom
Opera
Stairs
Begins
Crawl
Recover
Stretch
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It is strange: I love to be in front of the audience, but I have this opposite side that is afraid of meeting people, that doesn't want to talk. I feel it's like having a little hard stone inside me of problems, doubts, and shyness.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Shyness
Doubts
Stone
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When you start, you have no brain; you are a kid. It's fine. But then I started to be scared. I was scared of judgment - not as a dancer, but as a person - and I was really uncomfortable with people. And it lasted for a very long time.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Uncomfortable
Time Brain Long
Lasted
Very Long Time
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I had no sense of having reached some goal because I was an etoile at the Paris Opera. My ambition, if you can call it that, was to discover and learn and be excited by what I was doing. If I didn't have that, I would find it elsewhere.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Elsewhere
Opera
Discover
No Sense
Reached
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I just know that when I go onstage, I give everything I have, not only my feet, not only my legs, not only my body. I try to tell a story. Sometimes I am able to cry because I feel like it. Sometimes I am able to love because I feel like it.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Dance
Feet
Giving
Love Is
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Animals feel pain and love and joy, just as humans. But in the industrialised meat, dairy, and egg industries, animals are denied everything that's natural and important to them. Some of them don't even feel the fresh air. They don't see the light.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Air
Dairy
Denied
Fresh Air
Humans
Joy
Light
Meat
Natural
Pain
Animals
Egg
Fresh
Industries
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You don't start by saying, 'Well, am I better than her?' Because that goes nowhere. Instead, all your work, your passion, your will has to go into what you do. And then if there is a result, if people like you, if you are a bit different, then fine.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Work Passion Better
Nowhere
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As much as I love my work, I do appreciate my rare days off. Even then, I can't afford to let the dancing go. I need at least an hour just to keep in shape, so wherever I am in the world, I'll grab the door or the furniture and do some serious exercise.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Furniture
Rare
Grab
Wherever
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Dancers should realise that they are really lucky. Dancing is not a job. It's people who are chosen. And you must realise that you are chosen. Sometimes I see a performance that makes me really angry - I think, 'Those people are lucky, and they don't realise it.'
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Chosen
Angry Me People
Dancers
Realise
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When I was doing gymnastics, I was playing. It was fun. The ballet was not fun at all. Yes, I agree you must have discipline, but you don't need to be a witch. You can't teach a child like that. Three times a week, I went back to train as a gymnast. Then I was happy.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Agree
Ballet
Discipline
Fun
Gymnast
Teach
Three
Witch
Child
Yes
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The stage is like a magnifier of thoughts and emotion and vibration; that's what the stage is incredible for because it makes you live other lives. It makes you experience other emotions. It makes you feel more beautiful or more alone or more angry. It makes you feel much more, more, more.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Vibration
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When you are young, you can do anything, everything, and nothing at the same time. You don't have that kind of judgment; you just eat... like teenagers that need to feed. After a while, you know exactly what you are looking for, that sense of analysis comes to you when you start to use your brain.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Analysis
Time Brain Your
Feed
Exactly What
Teenagers
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There are some ballets you can do for a long time. With others, you have to know when to stop. Some are very destructive. Forsythe's choreography pushes dancers to the extreme. That's why it's best to vary. That way, you break your body a little bit in different places, but not a lot in one place.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Choreography
Destructive
Vary
Your Body
Time Best Your
Extreme
Ballets
Best Time Long
Dancers
Different Places
Pushes
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Having limits to push against is how you find out what you can do. I have always been full of contradictions. I am shy but I love the freedom of the stage. I need reassurance but at the same time I don’t want it. I hate being afraid but I can’t help wanting to frighten myself. That is how you grow.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Hate
Needs
Shy
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I love nature like nothing else. Before I moved to Switzerland, my home was a flat in London with a garden. In those snatched moments away from dance, I did typical weekend things like pruning, planting, and weeding. I planted fruit trees and even had a vegetable garden, but I wasn't around enough, so it was a disaster.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Dance
Disaster
Fruit
Garden
London
Moments
Moved
Pruning
Switzerland
Typical
Flat
Planted
Snatched
Trees
Vegetable
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I have learned a great deal from the theatrical side of Covent Garden. The Paris Opera Ballet is more concerned with technique. It's perfect. It's beautiful. It's well done. But it lacks the theatrical tradition that is so important in England. At the Royal Ballet, absolutely everyone on stage seems to be caught up in the plot.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Ballet
Caught
Garden
Opera
Plot
Royal
Technique
Theatrical
Well Done
Great Beautiful Done
Great Deal
Lacks
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When you do one more 'Cinderella' or whatever, what is there to learn? Every part in the repertoire has a good side and a bad side, and the more often you do the same ballet, the more often the bad side comes out. If you want to give dance life, you must give it fresh food, not keep going back to the garbage to look for old scraps.
Sylvie Guillem / Ballet Dancer
Ballet
Fresh Food
Garbage
Life Good Food
Repertoire
Scraps
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Sylvie Guillem Quotes - Page 2

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