Misty Copeland Quotes

My goal has always been to be a principal dancer with ABT.

I actually was a ballet dancer - I studied ballet from three until 13 - but like very seriously, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a contemporary ballet dancer. I wanted to go to Juilliard.

I've danced since I was 5 and went to the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center at 7.

After I finished 'Center Stage,' I went back to San Francisco, and I danced for seven seasons with the San Francisco Ballet.

The moment the curtain rose on that first ballet, I knew something wonderful and new had come into my life. I can still see the first scene. The ballet was Divertimento No. 15.

I knew I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but what kind, I wasn't sure. My two dream companies had been New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater.

I was raised with a lot of classical music. I loved ballet. I was a bun head for 10 years.

I think ballet is pretty open about what music is used, actually.

I don't really dance for pleasure much." "Uh--so you, uh, usually dance professionally, or what?" Seb asked. "Yeah," said Nick. "The ballet is my passion.

I was a ballet dancer. I did other kinds of dance but ballet was my great love. But then it became clear, when I was 12, that my body wasn't going to be right. That's always a heartbreaking moment because there's nothing you can do about that. Your body is just not right. You don't have enough turnout. You're not built properly.

I ended up training only for four years before I was accepted into American Ballet Theater in New York City.

Everything I was being shown was ABT, so I grew up watching these videos of [Mikhail] Baryshnikov, Gelsey [Kirkland] and Paloma [Herrera]. Paloma and Angel [Corella] were the first people I ever saw dance live.

Apparently, I have good feet for ballet.

Classical ballet will never die.

Russians are very discerning about ballet. They're very opinionated about what classical ballet is.

With classical ballet you are literally injuring yourself.

The heart of the classical repertory is the Tchaikovsky-Petipa 'Sleeping Beauty,' and no ballet is harder to get right.

I have been very lucky to work in so many new ballets, but that is what a dancer's work is.

I wanted to be a ballet teacher.

At age 14, coming to the U.S., all I knew was American Ballet Theatre, Baryshnikov, Nureyev, and some of the European companies. I barely knew anything about Balanchine.

I had been a ballet dancer and never could make a living, and just being so excited that I got to, all of a sudden, live as an actor.

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

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

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.