I understand things that are American, for better or worse.
This is the hard part. Knowing and admitting a problem are not the same as solving it. But executing a solution is also the fun part, because the solution save you and gets you moving again.
I had always seen myself as a star; I wanted to be a galaxy.
I feel I can handle the architecture of dance as well as anybody.
I always find that the best collaborations are when you work with people that know what they’re doing, and you leave them alone to do it.
I think Tolstoy had an unbelievably complicated relationship with women.
I have a sort of tactility about music. I go into record stores and just run my fingers over it, the spines.
I have to feel that each thing I’ve learned I can push to another point next time. I’m not very good with repetition. I would rather not work than feel that repetition is the order of the day.
I think of music as fuel, its spectrum of energy governed by tempi, volume, and heart.
Living had little use for me other than how it could be funneled into dance.
Limits are a secret blessing, and bounty can be a curse.
I was fortunate to love men, so I could put them on stage and make roles for them, and move through their bodies in a way that they enjoy doing.
Over time, as the daily routines become second nature, discipline morphs into habit.
The necessity to constantly turn in an excellent performance, to be absolutely wedded to this dedication and this ideal means that as a child you’re going to pay for it personally.
I am fairly concise when I work and I work quickly because I think work is done better in a high gear than done our in a gear when everyone’s exhausted. Get focused, do it!
The rewards of dancing are very different from choreographing.
The formal education that I received made little sense to me.
I’m a known reader. That’s what I do with my time.
I was privileged to be able to study a year with Martha Graham, the last year she was teaching.
I never studied with Balanchine, but his work was very important to me.