I absolutely love what I do, and I want to dance for as long as I can and feel good about what I am putting out there on the stage.

I absolutely love what I do, and I want to dance for as long as I can and feel good about what I am putting out there on the stage.

I definitely like to be natural and more relaxed and not wear a lot of makeup.

Those people that don't see the power in art maybe have never been a part of an art, in a real way. To experience it, and to see and witness how it affects people, we're not doing it just to create professionals. It's to add another dimension to the way that children think and the way they experience certain things. If you didn't have dance, music and singing, it just seems so odd to me.

My goal has always been to be a principal dancer with ABT.

Going on stage and transcending the audience and becoming this otherworldly thing makes you a dancer. It's not so black and white.

Some people even think that I'm still just not right for it [ballet]. And I think it's shocking because they hear those words from critics saying I'm too bulky, I'm too busty. And then they meet me in person and they're like, you look like a ballerina. And I think it's just something maybe that I will never escape from, those people who are narrow-minded. But my mission, my voice, my story, my message, is not for them. And I think it's more important to think of the people that I am influencing and helping to see a broader picture of what beauty is.