NATALIA MAKAROVA

It's a hard life... but if I could, I would do it all again.

I am different because I have better schooling, better understanding of the line, gesture, how feet working, positions. They taught me modern things... and I wanted to give what I had: my schooling.

All ballet, all reading, all music. That was my world, my inner world.

Dancers, many dancers today can do so much technically. You can give them steps that are complicated, then more complicated, pyrotechnical - and they can execute these steps to perfection. But to do simple steps with a pure classical line, that is truly difficult.

I really feel sorry for new generation. It's hard to find backbone. I never had crisis of identity. But I think many Americans have it.

All of the very important events in my life happen by chance.

Usually, English personalities are difficult; they don't take criticism easily.

Many people thought I would never succeed, because I am so Russian. So Russian, hundred percent.

I don't keep my secrets or my knowledge to myself.

I travel like a gypsy, and I didn't know how I could perform and be a mother.

I think often that God is guiding me.

Even the ears must dance.

Technical things are getting more mechanical. Take 'Swan Lake,' the Black Swan pas de deux. Now, my goodness, they're turning not just 32 fouettes - but double or triple pirouettes.

I want to be free... free to develop my art.

I recently learn a new word: insatiable. That's me.

You cannot dance an arabesque in 'Swan Lake' and 'Nutcracker' the same way.

It's not possible to be perfect - you can always do something better. I'm never proud of what I've done. Sometimes, I'm not ashamed.

To look back all the time is boring. Excitement lies in tomorrow.

People tell me I'm dancing better than ever. I don't know what happened, but I have new enthusiasm and more endurance.

Because my profession is the body, it is a relaxation for me to get out of physicality and concentrate on more mental things.

It is the body, subject to the harmony of the steps it is executing, which speaks. And it speaks to the heart in as direct a language as does music.

The expression should come from within oneself, conveying the spiritual - something between earth and heaven. And if one runs, one should not seem to touch the ground.

A real ballerina must fill her space with her own personality.