We lived, until I was 12 or so, in communal apartment with five different families and the same kitchen, in two little - my brother and me and my parents. It was hell, but it was a common thing. My father was not general or admiral, but he was colonel. He was teaching in military academy military topography.
I adored my mother, and I will always have extraordinary memories about her and remember her, and she opened the doors for me to appreciate arts.
My father was a Party member and he was a pretty high rank military officer under the colonel, junior colonel, I don't know the term. He was a total Stalinist. A bit with a streak of anti-Semitism and very shrewd man, a very kind of nervous man.
Dance is one of the most revealing art forms.
No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.
Astaire was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.
I remember vividly seeing 'Tarzan' and Fred Astaire, the Chaplin films, Fred Astaire musicals, MGM, because of my mother. She was just interested in everything and she took me to opera and ballet, and then ballet got me hooked.
I have been very lucky to work in so many new ballets, but that is what a dancer's work is.
I want to do exactly what I want to do. I'd rather gamble on the box office than beg for a grant.
It's weird when you see pieces of choreography that were done for you 15 or 20 years ago and now they are being done by another dance company.
A country like Belgium, or socialist countries in central Europe spend more money on art education than the United States, which is a really puzzling thought.
I like to go to anybody else's birthday, and if I'm invited I'm a good guest. But I never celebrate my birthdays. I really don't care.
In opera tradition, when opera die-hard fans, there is a replacement of singer or singer wasn't at his or hers vocal best, doing something, they boo. Especially now that they pay hundreds of dollars for the ticket.
You cannot be happy with your family while being personally unhappy with your work. It's a Catch-22 kind of thing.
You open a section of 'The New York Times,' and there's a review or a story on a choreographer or a dancer, and there's an informative, clear image of a dancer. This is, in my view, not an interesting photograph.
I kind of lost interest in the classical dance. I was very much interested in the modern choreography.
Creative Artists Agency put together a project of extraordinary mediocrity and colossal stupidity. Otherwise, it was great.
I cannot belong to a nonprofit organization because when you receive grants, you have to make such great compromises with your artistic plans.
I never liked dance photography; it's very flat, and dance photography in the studio looks very contrived.
I found that dance, music, and literature is how I made sense of the world... it pushed me to think of things bigger than life's daily routines... to think beyond what is immediate or convenient.
