I set as my goal to be the best dancer I could be. Not the most famous, or the highest paid dancer, just the best I could be. Out of this discipline came great freedom and calm.

Even though I am a professional, and I know what the steps are, I don't quite know how I'm going to do them, because I haven't lived that moment yet. I always feel very insecure and I get very excited.

I loved tests because it was another form of competing, a healthy competition.

That the work involved, the willingness to take chances, the commitment, the opportunity to get on stage and make people happy, was more important than becoming famous, or even what I was dancing.

Once I started dancing, I was not the spoiled brat or the rebellious child that I was as a child.

But what was my motivation was music, and the fact that I love to move around. I'm always moving around.

In fact, ballet companies did not exist in the Midwest when I was a child.