I loved the atmosphere of the dance studios - the wooden floors, the big mirrors, everyone dressed in pink or black tights, the musicians accompanying us - and the feeling of ritual the classes had.
American Ballet Theatre's rehearsal studios are at 890 Broadway, an old building where exposed pipes clank and hiss in uneven accompaniment to piano music. The high ceilings wear a toupee of dust. The wall paint peels like a newbie ballerina's toes.
My mother took me to every kind of dance instructor.
Going to salsa clubs may be popular, but I feel we're really missing something as a society by overlooking ballroom dancing. If only we could persuade schools to teach it or there was somewhere young people could go on a Saturday night to learn it.
I trained in every form of dance - started as a tap dancer when I was a kid, then contemporary, ballet, ballroom, everything. Russian, Swedish.
I was a ballet dancer growing up and that's what I was convinced I would be.
The dance community suddenly came alive with programs like 'So You Think You Can Dance,' 'America's Best Dance Crew' and 'Dancing With The Stars.'
It was quite a thespian - 'thespy' - sort of household. My mum had a dance school, and my dad now works in a theatre, so I spent a lot of time going to see dance as a young child - it was just a part of who we were.
I started out in the ballroom scene when I was fourteen years old.
The dance world was a big part of my growing up.
I can't dance, but I have tried it in 'Kohram.'
My name is not unfamiliar to anybody in the dance community. I'm talking the upper echelon of dance studios.
I danced growing up. I had two friends of mine that, actually, one of them wound up dancing with Alvin Ailey.
I started dancing when I was 3 in Toledo, Ohio, and started hip-hop dancing at the age of 7.
To me, dance and ballet are not so accessible.
