Sylvie Guillem
I don’t think I changed the way people look at ballet. Lifting my leg very high, that was the easy part, and a lot of dancers were lifting their legs high before me. If that’s all I did for dance, my God.
Long legs and extreme suppleness is not what changes dance. What matters is touching an audience, when you bring something close to truth on stage, something close to generosity to the characters you are playing. These women – Manon, Marguerite – they are so deep and so complex, musically, intellectually and emotionally, and all of that should always be there. My goal was always to give everything I had.
– Sylvie Guillem, Interview with Debra Craine, The Times, 5 December 2014
Themes: audience, generosity, interpretation, technique, truth | Art form: Ballet
More quotes by Sylvie Guillem
- Technical perfection is insufficient. It is an orphan without the true soul of the dancer.
- I don't think I changed the way people look at ballet. Lifting my leg very high, that was the easy part, and a lot of dancers were lifting their legs high before me. If that's all I did for dance, my God. Long legs and extreme suppleness is not what changes dance. What matters is touching an audience, when you bring something close to truth on stage, something close to generosity to the characters you are playing. These women – Manon, Marguerite – they are so deep and so complex, musically, intellectually and emotionally, and all of that should always be there. My goal was always to give everything I had.
- When a real artist creates something, it has to be a necessity, the only way he can say something.