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.
My goal was to become the best dancer in the world and, because I started late, I always had this feeling I was playing catch-up, so I've been a bit of a maniac most of my life, sort of striving.
I was very personable and outgoing and was friends with most everybody in my class but I was a diehard dancer so I was constantly at dance classes and working toward my passion of dance.
I've dedicated my life to competitive dancing, so I'd like to pass that on to others. You can't be half-hearted about competitive dancing, you have to be prepared to give your whole life over to it.
He was one of those earnest, persevering dancers--the kind that have taken twelve correspondence lessons.
No matter what I try to do or explore, my Kirov training, my expertise, and my background call me to return to dancing after all, because that's my real vocation, and I have to serve it.
As a dancer, I know couples that have stayed married but separated to dance on different continents. Dance in general, but ballet in particular, is such a finite career. You can't do it later in life, and it's something that I think a dancer has to have some selfishness to fulfill.
I spend at least a couple hours a day in the studio, every day, whether I'm dancing or not.
I just want to continue to pursue dancing. I want to focus on making it out there and showing everybody my heart and soul through dance... and do it until I can't walk anymore.
Most dancers are less eccentric than driven. It starts young. When other kids are at the playground, we're in the studio, endlessly drilling jumps and adjusting our socks.
My dance classes were open to anybody, my only stipulation was that they had to come to the class every day.
I used to love ballet and I did it really, really intensely. But it came so much about achieving physical perfection, which when I was 14 was a big deal.
