Penelope Cruz Quotes

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.

Ballet can be grueling, for sure, but it gives you a certain discipline.

So I'm studying ballet every day and really training so people will see me as a ballet dancer, which no one's seen before.

You can have a knack for dancing, but you still have to practice till your feet are bleeding to be worthy of being in front of an audience.

A musical takes two to five years. You have to love it to put in the years.

I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I was bad - I'm not very coordinated. But I always wished I could have been a dancer.

The worst thing about me is my toes. I've thick joints from wearing pointe ballet shoes - I went to a dance school from the age of 11 and danced every day.

Ballet is an incredibly difficult, beautiful art form that takes a lot of training, a lot of time, and a lot of hard work.

If you were ever a ballerina, you know the pain: just to be able to look like it's all so light, but when they take off their shoes, it's all bloody.

I was a ballerina, and everything I did in dance was delicate, pretty.

As a professional ballet dancer, I have to accept that weekends are about work. The notion of a leisurely break with all the buzz and excitement of a Friday night simply doesn't exist for me.

When you're wearing pointe shoes, honestly, they hurt - a lot - every day.

I never dreamt of becoming a ballerina. I was just curious about it, it was something to explore.

Classical ballet is very extreme. You're doing it six days a week, and it's a kind of obsession of perfecting a move. So every muscle in your body has been stretched and tightened, stretched and tightened.

Acting is equal parts talent and perseverance.

I push myself hard. I don't like pain, exactly, but as a ballerina, I lived in constant pain. At ballet school in Stockholm, I remember we had a locker where if someone had been to the doctor and gotten painkillers, we divided them among us. In a sense, we were all addicted.

I'm not a natural. I had to teach myself - or be taught - everything I do. I just spent hours and hours in the mirror mimicking Michael Jackson.

I think that, like any kind of career, there are many different people involved in the ballet world.

I have been a professional dancer and athlete my entire life.

As a child, I had been told that I was exactly what a ballerina should be.

Anybody cannot be a dancer. A dancer must have a certain posture, gestures, height, behaviour.

I love dance; that's a big part of my life - like, ballet specifically.

I'm an actress. I'm ready to work anytime.

When I am doing a role, I don't think that I am getting to wear a mini skirt or show my stomach. I am doing a role because I am an actor.

Dance has always been the center of who I am. It has given me the inspiration to help other people find a hobby, passion, and activity that fulfills them. It also taught me some of the many skills I need as an entrepreneur: a hard work ethic that takes practice to master and the confidence to persevere through any challenges.