I was a protege; by the age of 10, I was studying with ballet choreographer Anthony Tudor in a class of adults.

Dancing is being trusted with other people's guts; choreographing is trusting other people with yours. When I choreograph I'm giving a dancer something to do and trusting the dancer to do it and build on it.

I believe that this world was set about for us to enjoy and to love and to experience and to have it all be, to a certain extent, unpredictable. Ever since I was a child I have believed that my life has been guided.

Dance is not endangered - it will always find a way to express itself.

I have been guilty of watching Westerns without acknowledging that Native Americans have gone through the same madness as African Americans. Isn't it extraordinary that sometimes the most offended have not seen others being offended?

The word 'suffering' is not in my vocabulary.

Every dancer lives on the threshold of chucking it.