Ballet Quotations | Page 3

I am not an educated person. I didn't come up through a ballet company. I came up through burlesque. So I have a lot of inferiority feelings concerning my own lack of education, my entry into show business. I'm not a Baryshnikov. I'm not a Nureyev. I came up in vaudeville. Strippers. So I've always had these feelings. But I think they've also helped me.

When I was about 12, I was studying Chinese and ballet with my brother, and one morning Jonathan said to me, 'I don't think I'm going to go to ballet class anymore,' and I looked at him and said, 'You know, I don't think I'm going to go to Chinese class anymore.'

I hated the ballet, but I liked performing. I did 20 shows, and I couldn't get the smile off my face.

When I was nine, I started doing ballet. That's when I knew that I was down to keep doing it.

I've been dancing all my life and studied at Joffrey Ballet when I was 13 and singing all my life.

I've been interested in art and fashion for as long as I can remember because they are so visual. I am fascinated by the idea of visual creation from the ground up, which is a challenge in ballet when the audience has seen every show of yours, every other principal that you've shared a role with, and every different production.

The big thing about the season is the festival. I'm excited because it's going to include many parts of the community, for example Donald Byrd's Spectrum Dance, and Oregon Ballet Theater.

Ballet might be too formal of a title for the type of dance I do, but I love to dance. I love to draw and paint; I do ceramics and photography. I'm interested in a lot of creative stuff.

Ballet is just a vocabulary like English. Most classical ballets emphasize how high a woman can hold her leg, how skinny she is and all the tricks she can do. She may not ever have to express anything but extreme happiness or sadness. These ballets rarely interpret life. They are fables with princesses and fairies.

Ballet is certainly appreciated in New York, but it has been a part of the Russian culture, history and heritage for hundreds of years, so it's much more instilled in the Russian blood.