Can you talk a little bit about making the transition from dancer to educator, director, and choreographer?
I always needed to move to beautiful music. As a child, I danced in our living room, but would stop if anyone watched; it wasn’t the applause or the attention. I would have been happy dancing even if no one saw me. This meant I never became bored or unhappy with dance. There should always be happiness and comfort in responding to music. This attitude has allowed me to be a better teacher, and to bring fresh energy to the studio and to the dancers. When I was onstage I knew that I only had to account for myself. How I danced was who I was. I can’t do that now. I have to find more ways of communicating the ballets to my dancers because it’s them out onstage. Every student is individual to me. It’s up to me to find out what they need to have their dancing be their thumbprint. As I’ve said before, there are many layers that make up a person, and sometimes I have to strip some of those layers away in order to find out who they are before rebuilding them – not in my image, but as who they sh
