I absolutely love what I do. And I want to dance for as long as I can and feel good about what I'm putting out there on the stage. But my goal has always been to be a principal dancer with ABT. Before I knew that there had never been a black woman, that was always my goal. I wanted to dance Odette-Odile and Kitri and "Don Quixote" and Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty." So that's still my goal. But knowing that it's never been done before, I think makes me fight even harder.

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

For me, I was in school and I pushed myself to be a good student, just because that's the type of person I was, but I never had a connection to any of it. I don't think my brain functioned in a way that was at its height, when I was in school. I needed something like art to really value the way my mind works. I wasn't reaching my full potential by sitting in a classroom and reading from a book. My mind didn't work that way.

I will never be the best dancer or artist. I will be growing until the day I retire.

Once I became a professional, maybe 19 or 20, I really started to try to figure out who I was, as a woman and as an individual.

There are muscles that we have in our feet that most human beings don't even know that we have. The strength that we have is so detailed.

Take advantage of the resources around you and the relationships you build!