The Analysis of Beauty

Beauty is the essence of ballet. My CV includes dancing on stage and passing examinations in classical ballet. As a male dancer I pay attention more to men dancing in performance - except when Marianela Nunez is on stage.

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“The whole of beauty and grandeur of the art consists in being able to get above all singular forms, local customs, particularities and detail of every kind.” Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) ‘Seven Discourses On Art’

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“Taste is the faculty of judging an object or mode of representing it by an entirely disinterested satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The object of such satisfaction is called beautiful.” Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

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“Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.” Edgar Alan Poe (1809-1849)

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“It is necessary to the existence of an idea of beauty, that the sensual pleasure which may be at its basis should be accompanied first by joy, then with the love of the object, then with the perception of kindness in a superior intelligence, finally with thankfulness and veneration towards that intelligence itself.” John Ruskin (1819-1900)

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‘Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye’ William Shakespeare 1564-1616, Love’s Labour Lost, Act 2 Scene 1

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‘Beauty is, for the greater part, some quality in bodies acting mechanically upon the human mind by the intervention of the senses.’ Edmund Burke 1729-1797 ‘A Philosophical Inquiry Into The Origin of Our Ideas of The Sublime and Beautiful’ 1756.

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‘The expression, therefore, of Ease or facility, is necessary to the Beauty of attitude or gesture, in the same manner as that of proportion is to the Beauty of form.’ Archibald Alison 1757-1839 ‘Essay on the Nature and Principles of Taste’ 1790

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“Beauty is nothing else, but what makes things as they are in their proper and perfect nature.” Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1613-1696)

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“That pleasure which is at once most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful” Edgar Alan Poe (1809-1849)

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“Dancing is an art of real difficulty, and we observe it always with the consciousness of this difficulty…. When, accordingly, we see all this well performed, when we see the dancer move without hurry or disorder, perform all the steps of the dance with ease, accommodate his motions with justice to the measure, and extricate himself from all the apparent intricacies of the figure, with order, and facility, we feel a very perceptible sentiment of surprise and admiration, and are conscious of the Grace of gestures, in which so much skill, and composure, and presence of mind are displayed.” Archibald Alison (1757-1839) ‘Essay on the Nature and Principles of Taste’ 1790

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“It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.” Voltaire (1694-1778)

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“Ease is necessary to the Beauty either of attitude or gesture.” Archibald Alison (1757-1839)

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“Beauty alone confers happiness on all, and under its influence every being forgets that he is limited.” Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768)

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“Beauty, like truth, is a thing relative to the time in which one lives, and to the individual who is capable of receiving it.” Gustave Corbet (1819-1877)

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“By beauty I mean, that quality or those qualities in bodies, by which they cause love, or some passion similar to it.” Edmund Burke (1729-1797) ‘A Philosophical Inquiry into The Origin of Our Ideas of The Sublime and Beautiful’, 1756.

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“There can be no objective rule of taste which shall determine by means of concepts what is beautiful” Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

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“All beauty is in the eye of the beholder” English proverb.