Often, When You've Reached A Very High

As Soon As You Become Afraid To Make A Fool Of Yourself, You're In Trouble. I Decided I May As Well Just See If I Can Live With Myself Making Millions Of Mistakes And Learn Something From It.

You've Got To Break Through This Idea Of Being Light As A Ballerina. The Heavier You'll Feel, The Lighter You'll Look.

Classical Virtuosity Is More Than Technique, Line, Proportion, And Balance. It Is As If The Performer And Spectator Come Together To Hold In Their Hands A Bird With A Broken Wing. The Creature Can Be Felt To Stir, To Struggle For Freedom. Its Life Responds To Human Warmth; Its Wing Might Brush Your Check As It Flies Away.

Often, When You've Reached A Very High Level Of Achievement, You Almost Become Paralyzed By The Idea That Anything You Might Do Might Be Imperfect. Perfection Is Just The Striving, The Effort, The Struggle, But It's Hard To Remember That.

There Was A Stage When Balanchine And I Didn't Talk. I Was Trying To Develop My Classical Technique As Opposed To The Fast-track Technique That He Was Pushing. We Were Very Quiet With Each Other. But After Two Years He Saw What I Was Doing And Sent Messages Through Other People That, Yes, This Is Good.