if you want to create art, you'd best have a deep belief in yourself and no ulterior motives.

The ballet needs to tell its own story in such a way it can be received without having to be translated into language.

I understand things that are American, for better or worse.

I repeat the wake-up, the workout, the quick shower, the breakfast of three hard-boiled egg whites and a cup of coffee, the hour to make my morning calls and deal with correspondence, the two hours of stretching and working out ideas by myself in the studio ... That's my day, every day. A dancer's life is all about repetition.

Failing, and learning from it, is necessary. Unil you've done it, you're missing an important piece of your creative arsenal.

I read for growth, firmly believing that what you are today and what you will be in five years depends on two things: the people you meet and the books you read.

The irony of multitasking is that it's exhausting: when you're doing two or three things simultaneously, you use more energy than the sum of energy required to do each task independently. You're also cheating yourself because your're not doing anything excellently. You're compromising your virtuosity. In the words of T. S. Elliot, you're 'distracted from distractions by distractions'.