After I stopped dancing, I was unable to listen to beautiful music.

You don't learn from a situation where you do something well. You enjoy it and you give yourself credit, but you don't really learn from that. You learn from trial and error, trial and error, all the time.

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

The particular ballet was not so important as the fact that I was physically healthy, and capable of getting out there and dancing as often as possible.

I used to love to play dress-up, where you get your mother's or your grandmother's dresses and high heels.

I think it was important that I learned to love to dance eventually for its own sake, as opposed to wanting to be a ballerina.

I think especially in a world where you have so little say about what goes on in your life, or in the politics of the world around you, it is wonderful to go into that studio, and tell yourself what to do.