Jiri Kylian quotes

Jiri Kylian quotes

last updated: November 28, 2023

“Every teacher will tell you that you cannot dance classical technique with perfection, there is no such thing, there is no way. So you have to adapt the technique to your abilities or to your deficiencies. Learn to cheat!”
-- Jiri Kylian

Source : "In conversation: Jiri Kylian on the choreographer's art". Interview to Dance Magazine, November 1, 1994.

#Dance Quotes #Teacher Quotes #Perfection Quotes

“To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.”
“A good education is usually harmful to a dancer. A good calf is better than a good head.”
“But remember that intent is everything. One does not just jump, one lifts into the air, one rises. In the same way the lifted leg of an arabesque becomes a wing, and not a mechanical leverage like a raised trap door. This is the precise difference between dancing and acrobatics. The dancer tries to express something; the acrobat merely pulls, raises, stretches and grinds. The acrobat is lost in a web of muscles the dancer is all but invisible in projected idea.”
“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?”
“Each individual creature on this beautiful planet is created by God to fulfil a particular role. Whatever I have achieved in life is through His help and an expression of His will. He showered His grace on me through some outstanding teachers and colleagues and when I pay my tributes to these fine persons, I am merely praising His glory. We are all born with a divine fire in us.”
“Teach the children so it will not be necessary to teach the adults.”
“There are moments as a teacher when I'm conscious that I'm trotting out the same exact phrase my professor used with me years ago. It's an eerie feeling, as if my old mentor is not just in the room, but in my shoes, using me as his mouthpiece.”
“I grew up in the theatre. It's where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection.”
“Religion becomes a state of mind achievable in almost any activity of life, if this activity is raised to a suitable level of perfection.”
“Ah, woman. She is an enigma. An anomaly of perfection & irony. She can lure angels into her arms & give birth to a nation of ideologies.”

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