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.

I didn't care too much for ballet, because you had to be more disciplined, and you sort of looked like everyone else. It required a certain kind of conformity that I didn't feel like I wanted to do.

Of course, in the art class, I was the model.

And I just thought, this is what I want to be. And I knew that dancing would be my chosen profession.

Good theater should always send people away feeling changed.

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.

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