I was a go-go dancer, too. I called myself 'Grace Mendoza' to fool my parents.
I don't think of myself as a dancer. I think of myself as a singer-actress who moves really well.
I also loved musicals because I was a dancer.
When I went to the sets of 'ABCD,' I felt younger. Surrounded by so many young dancers, I, too, became a dancer again.
For ballet dancers, style is about melding personal expression with physical form.
I like to say, 'Once a dancer, always a dancer.' In everything - the way you walk, the way you move, the way you talk, the way you sit - everything is just, you've been trained a certain way your whole life, so it's a bit muscle memory.
I've been on stage since I was 7. That's where I'd rather be than anywhere else. Just because you can do a bunch of things doesn't mean you are a bunch of things. I can act. I can sing. But I am a dancer.
Ballet needs figures that people can recognize and relate to. People don't know ballet dancers as well as they know other artists.
I love Abby Lee Miller. Honestly, if there's such a thing as past lives, I was definitely a dancer.
When I started, there was a very strong image of what the ballerina was supposed to be in her tights and her costume, and then I started doing photo shoots in bomber boots, and it wasn't seen as the done thing.
You can be Eastern or Burmese or what have you, but the function of the body and the awareness of the body results in dance and you become a dancer, not just a human being.
I want people to look like people when they're dancing.
I think I'm the same dancer everywhere. But I've learned a lot with Bolshoi - the history of the theater, the technique of the theater, different nuances in my technique.
Since I was a kid, I've been a dancer, and, of course, I'll always be a dancer till the day I die.
There were many good actresses in my time like Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds, but I was the only dancer.
Who a dancer is physically feeds into character for me. Always has.
I'm not an egomaniac like a lot of people say. But I am the world's best dancer, that's for sure.
I'm always very nervous about the word 'dancer' next to my name because anyone who's really trained in dance will go, 'This guy's fudging so badly.'
I walk like a duck: very straight up and down. Or like a penguin. It's a dead giveaway that I'm a dancer.
Dancers are not like movie actresses. People look at our bodies, not our faces. They only recognise me when I sign my name on something and they say, 'Ah yes, Sylvie.'
Mr. Balanchine wanted me to be myself. He didn't want me to look like anyone else. I love teaching our company dancers the Balanchine ballets. I try to give them what was passed down to me and what I learned from him. They dance it so beautifully. It also keeps me close to Mr. Balanchine. He's with me every single day.
I was a dancer, so I always loved watching girls perform and dance and just always looked up to them and their bodies.
My curves became an integral part of who I am as a dancer, not something I needed to lose to become one.
I love 'The Walking Dead,' 'Shameless,' and - this is going to sound really dorky - I'm obsessed with 'Dance Moms.' I love Abby Lee Miller. Honestly, if there's such a thing as past lives, I was definitely a dancer. Maybe if I ever get a big enough name, I can call Abby Lee Miller myself and ask her to be my private coach.
I was so comfortable with my ballet power, my dancer power, that to have a voice, the comfort with having a voice, is slower to come to me.
