Robert Gottlieb Quotes

Technical things are getting more mechanical. Take 'Swan Lake,' the Black Swan pas de deux. Now, my goodness, they're turning not just 32 fouettes - but double or triple pirouettes.

When you're a dancer, you start with the basics. You don't all of a sudden do a grand jete and pirouette. You start with first position, second, third.

Sometimes I miss being en pointe, but not a whole lot. Every once and a while, I would love to float for a minute on a shoe. But for the most part, I did it long enough that it's OK.

And then you have the classical ballerinas, they're like sopranos. Applied to the dance.

Classical ballet will never die.

At 7, I was at the barre and dancing at folk festivals. Then I was a student with the ballet school of the Metropolitan Opera.

I am passionate about ballet.

Certainly, when you train as a classical dancer, you are very much influenced by 'Giselle.' You see it all the time; you start to learn the steps a little.

You cannot dance an arabesque in 'Swan Lake' and 'Nutcracker' the same way.

I'm always ballet ready.

In ballet class, I felt like Ralph Wiggum.

When I was younger, people would always say, 'Are you a ballet dancer?' I had that look - one of those skinny kids with my hair in a bun.

I danced six hours a day. My cross to bear is that my children have no interest in ballet. I think they could smell how much I wanted to put their hair in a bun.

Ballet was just something that I always wanted to do.

I've been practicing ballet since I was three years old.

Ballet requires movements which are very unnatural. With every step, you do a circular movement of the hip. You turn out from the hip and make your knees point out to the side instead of forward.

There was a period of time when I studied ballet a lot when I was growing up.

I really enjoyed watching a ballerina named Denise Dabrowski who used to dance at California Ballet. She was a beautiful ballerina and role model for a lot of young dancers.

I had never a thought of training to be a ballerina. I was a normal child. I never dreamed of the tutu.

I've always been excited by the strangeness of ballet, but I can't bear it when people just come forward and do a turn in the air for no reason.

I wanted to be a male ballet dancer.

In the world of classical ballet there are only a handful of story ballets, so getting a new one is cause for excitement.

By the end of 'Swan Lake,' you know how there's all the corps on stage, and she keeps running in the back, doing arms? You can't feel your arms. You're just like, 'Ow.'

I trained as a ballet dancer - well, I started when I was two and a half, and was serious about it from when I was eight until I was 18.

Ballet is an incredibly difficult, beautiful art form that takes a lot of training, a lot of time, and a lot of hard work.