Vincent Pastore Quotes

A dancer's career is short - you just keep going until your legs pack up.

A dancer's life is hard - it is so physically demanding, and at any moment, you could have an injury that could end your career.

There are very few dance companies in the world and you have to be phenomenal. You have to not be injured. You have to have a really strong mind to deal with the dance world. People who can do it are amazing to me. You cannot have a life outside of dance.

Everything is not beautiful at the ballet. It's tough.

I trained as a dancer and did all that kind of stuff. And as a dancer, pressure's a good thing.

Dancers are working their bodies just like a marathon runner would, and you have to eat to make it through a three-hour performance. Dancers put their bodies through incredible strain.

Boxing, mixed martial arts and tennis are the hardest sports to train for.

I'm born originally in Toronto, and I have what I call my 'Fame' story. I took a Greyhound bus and went to Alvin Ailey and received Dunham, Horton, Graham technique there, but I could never take my eyes off of Balanchine doing 'Nutcracker'; to me he's the best who ever did it.

The thing about ballet that I never knew about is that it's one of the most excruciating sports that I've ever been a part of. I say sports because they train constantly, every single day.

As far as wrestling goes, as long as my body is able to withstand the physical beating, I will keep wrestling.

I don't get grumpy at a 'Strictly' level, you understand. We're just making a television show - the person I'm dancing with can't dance; they're doing their best, and we're not going to win the World Championships.

Certainly the life of a dancer is very difficult. The training is very hard and relentlessly grueling.

I'm obviously always interested in the dancer who's an athlete and vice versa. I expect dancers to be in condition like an athlete is and to challenge themselves in the same way, to the same physical degree.

I know that dancers, especially ballet dancers, can't do it forever.

'Newsies' is definitely aerobic! The boys have to do a lot more than I do in the show, but for 'King of New York,' the big Act Two tap number, I have to be warmed up or I will hurt myself.

I was nervous about doing 'Scottsboro Boys' because I'm not a trained dancer, and there is a lot of very athletic dancing involved.

Professional tennis has become an extremely physical and unbelievably competitive sport. Injuries are the bane of tennis players, and it goes with the territory.

The first year with ABT I learned 13 new roles. Most were lengthy ballets, more complicated than I was used to. I have suffered from tendinitis since I was 13, and it flared up again until the pain was paralyzing. There were times I prayed I'd be sick so I wouldn't have to go on.

I try to stay in the best physical shape that I can because I do most of my own stunts. It looks amazing if you can do it, but I don't advocate it because you always get injured.

I love ballet, and it's a little boring for me to go to the gym because I'm used to the dancing discipline - it's really hard but much more fun.

I never danced a step in my life so naturally. My first motion picture was a musical, and Bob Fosse was the choreographer. I didn't exactly dance for Fosse, I just did the best that I could to do what he taught us to do.

I had the most incredible time on 'Dancing With the Stars.' It never occurred to me when I took it on that I would physically not be able to do it because that's not in an Olympic competitor's vocabulary! It was the most wonderful environment, such a nurturing environment.

The twenty minutes or more we spend inside the ring, that's the fun part. It's the rest of our lives that's the real battle - the ruthless backstage politics, the constant traveling, the endless mental and physical aches and pains.

I was very serious about ballet until the age of 12, at which point my body changed, and it wasn't quite right.

Ballet is a finite art - your body won't let you do it forever, so I wanted to do it while I could.