I was very restless. I really wanted to be a part of a kind of a progressive society. I was fed up with these Communist doctrines and you were hassled all the time with members of the Party committee who were KGB, what you have to do, where in the West you can go or not to go.

When I see people on the street, I look at how they walk. It's like a signature, a fingerprint.

I kind of lost interest in the classical dance. I was very much interested in the modern choreography.

The problem is not making up the steps but deciding which ones to keep.

It's weird when you see pieces of choreography that were done for you 15 or 20 years ago and now they are being done by another dance company.

What brought me to the theater, no matter you're a Jew or a Russian or Armenian or Latvian, are suddenly illuminated by stage light and one beautiful image of dance.

I remember vividly seeing 'Tarzan' and Fred Astaire, the Chaplin films, Fred Astaire musicals, MGM, because of my mother. She was just interested in everything and she took me to opera and ballet, and then ballet got me hooked.