I have always felt one of the things dance should do - its business being so clearly physical - is challenge the culture's gender stereotypes.

I've survived inattention. I hope to God I survive attention.

The formal education that I received made little sense to me.

There are so few people who can really take hold of art and sort of eat and chew it up. Somehow it's got to be held special, sacred in a corner, and if you don't do the same thing with it, if you're not equally reverential, serious, and pompous about it, well, then you're not a great artist. Who needs that?

I think of music as fuel, its spectrum of energy governed by tempi, volume, and heart.

Perfect practice makes perfect.

I began to discriminate between fear and excitement. The two, though very close, are completely different. Fear is negative excitement, choking your imagination. Real excitement produces an energy that overcomes apprehension and makes you want to close in on your goal.