6 Quotes by Robert Helpmann

Ballet is like football. I don’t understand a footballer’s technique but I can see when he’s playing brilliantly. People don’t like ballet because they think they don’t understand it. Actually they do. It’s the most primitive form of appeal.

The trouble with nude dancing is that not everything stops when the music stops.

I was always nervous about coming back to Australia which was a complete hangover of the days when I left when ballet was not accepted, when I was not accepted, when I was considered a freak for wanting to be a ballet dancer. And, to be 100% honest, I rather dreaded coming back...

I don’t despair about the cultural scene in Australia because there isn’t one to despair about.

And I saw Australia anew through her eyes. And I realised what a tremendously thrilling country it was. And ever since then I have been coming back regularly.

I think you can be contemporary without taking your clothes off.