It is shameful that dancing should renounce the empire it might assert over the mind and only endeavor to please the sight.
Interpretation
Dance should engage the mind as well as please the eyes.
In this quote, Noverre critiques the superficial approach to dance that focuses only on visual beauty, suggesting that dance should also stimulate thought and emotion. He advocates for a deeper connection between the dancer and the audience, emphasizing that the true power of dance lies in its ability to convey complex ideas and feelings, rather than merely being a visual spectacle.
In practice
During a speech about the importance of art in education, this quote can highlight the multi-dimensional nature of dance.
The defect in wisdom and taste which exists among the majority of dancers is due to the bad education which they generally receive. They apply themselves only to the material side of their art, they learn to jump more or less high, they strive mechanically to execute a number of steps, and like children, who utter a great many words devoid of sense and relation, they execute many phrases of steps devoid of taste and grace.
People always ask me how I start a collection, and I tell them that I just look around. What am I tired of? What am I in the mood for? Real fashion change comes from real changes in real life. Everything else is just decoration.
Art is the gift of God, and must be used unto His glory. That in art is highest which aims at this.
The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.
If I didn't have my camera to remind me constantly, I am here to do this, I would eventually have slipped away, I think. I would have forgotten my reason to exist.
A life is not sufficiently elevated for poetry, unless, of course, the life has been made into an art.
All art is contemporary, if it's alive, and if it's not alive, what's the point of it?
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