Darcey Bussell Quotes

The thing about ballet that I never knew about is that it's one of the most excruciating sports that I've ever been a part of. I say sports because they train constantly, every single day.

I was a ballet dancer growing up and that's what I was convinced I would be.

Dancing is a tough career, but I'm glad I spent it at the Royal Ballet.

Everything is not beautiful at the ballet. It's tough.

I wanted to be a male ballet dancer.

I trained as a ballet dancer - well, I started when I was two and a half, and was serious about it from when I was eight until I was 18.

I have had so many great moments, but I would have to say that dancing the Swan in 'Swan Lake' was such a unique and passionate experience for me. It was such bloody hard work, even at that very early age, that I would not want to try to replicate it again now.

It became my first passion, the first thing I really fell in love with. I joined the Ralph Robinson Ballet company, and then went to New York and became a dancer. I thought I'd die before I did anything else.

Being in ballet school and being in leotards in front of a mirror I don't know how many hours a day was quite tough.

I danced six hours a day. My cross to bear is that my children have no interest in ballet. I think they could smell how much I wanted to put their hair in a bun.

I was one of those dancers who they say wants to feel the floor through their pointe shoes. I would end up not wearing toe pads and that stuff. I would just wrap minimal amounts of paper towels around my toes.

I know that dancers, especially ballet dancers, can't do it forever.

'Newsies' is definitely aerobic! The boys have to do a lot more than I do in the show, but for 'King of New York,' the big Act Two tap number, I have to be warmed up or I will hurt myself.

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.

The first show I ever did, singing and dancing, was 'Beauty and the Beast.' I was playing Gaston. Gaston has red tights, knee high boots, and it's very physical. I had headaches every day for two months.

I was nervous about doing 'Scottsboro Boys' because I'm not a trained dancer, and there is a lot of very athletic dancing involved.

The music industry is so easy compared to the ballet world.

The first year with ABT I learned 13 new roles. Most were lengthy ballets, more complicated than I was used to. I have suffered from tendinitis since I was 13, and it flared up again until the pain was paralyzing. There were times I prayed I'd be sick so I wouldn't have to go on.

I wanted so badly to study ballet, but it was really all about wearing the tutu.

My own pregnancies were all about me, me, me. My aches, my pains, my swollen feet, and my body that looked like the Michelin Man.

I've never danced professionally as a ballet dancer, but all of my training is ballet, and I am a Fosse dancer.

I've got no plans to be a ballet dancer at the moment.

I've been dancing all my life and studied at Joffrey Ballet when I was 13 and singing all my life.

One of the few things in dance to match the Royal Ballet's curtain calls is the Royal Ballet's dancing.

Ballet is completely unnatural to the body, just being turned-out... it's not the way your body is supposed to function, so you actually train your body to be a different structure than you were born with.