Dancing is a gift. You are supposed to do it; it's like breathing.

I can't really hear the audience applause when I'm on stage. I'm totally immersed in the piece. But sometimes I get a lot of it and wonder, "Now, why did they applaud here?" If it's a white crowd, they usually applaud because they think it's a pretty movement. If it's a black crowd, it's usually because they identify with the message.

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

Learn the craft of knowing how to open your heart and to turn on your creativity. There's a light inside of you.

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.

If you look at a dancer in silence, his or her body will be the music. If you turn the music on, that body will become an extension of what you're hearing.

I want to know who you are as a person, and then I want you to develop as a whole human being.