When life takes me on a new journey, I simply remember the smile my first ballet recital put on my face and I move forward.
The bulk of life on Earth lives in a peaceful place where the temperature is stable. There's hunting going on, but it's very civilized, like a slow ballet.
I was in a competing company and have been dancing since I was four - ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop - so it's a huge part of my life and my music.
I had never picked up a basketball before. I went through a grueling audition process. It was almost as if I was learning to walk. It would be like teaching somebody to dance ballet for a role.
My world was a community ballet school, a marching band, my two sisters and my girlfriends. I played saxophone in the band and was a bit nerdy.
Does the New York City Ballet affect other places? Yeah, it lets people know they should come to New York.
However, the moral center of New York City, I believe, is the New York City Ballet.
I think of the New York City Ballet as the Yankees without George Steinbrenner.
When you're a child, you take things for granted. For instance, my mum didn't have a lot of money, but I went to piano, ballet and gymnastics lessons, and tae kwon do.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap. When a ballet company spends a lot of money on gimmicky pieces, it's stuck with them for a while - they have to earn their keep.
The thing about ballet that I never knew about is that it's one of the most excruciating sports that I've ever been a part of. I say sports because they train constantly, every single day.
Anytime you look at anything that's considered artistic, there's a commercial world around it: the ballet, opera, any kind of music. It can't exist without it.
I was serious about ballet for a long time, but my mom got me into tap and jazz and modern and hip-hop, and I was one of those over-lessoned children.
Billy: Just because I like ballet doesn't mean I'm a poof, you know.
A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I'm beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.
The ballet needs to tell its own story in such a way it can be received without having to be translated into language.
Astaire never thought of what he was doing as balletic, but Kelly was always trying to dance with women on points. And his choreography is so showy and flashy. He always looks self-satisfied to me.
Indifference is the greatest aphrodisiac.
This is the strange thing: Dancers don't age.
Backup dancers are completely respectable. They're the studio musicians of dance.
Obviously, the young dancers lack a certain air of maturity.
