“I think classical ballet dancers dance on pointe because they're simultaneously touching the earth and reaching up to the skies”

“At its most basic, Mr. Astaire's technique has three elements - tap, ballet and ballroom dancing. The ballet training, by his account, was brief but came at a crucial, early age. He has sometimes been classed as a tap dancer, but he was never the hoofer he has jokingly called himself. Much of the choreographic outline of his dancing with his ladies—be it Miss Rogers or Miss Hayworth—is ballroom. But of course, no ballroom dancer could dance like this.”

“At the time I started in ballet they were dancing 'The Spirit of Champagne' on pointe, in Paris. I thought, 'I don't want to dance the spirit of champagne, I want to drink it!”

“I never conduct any of the ballets I conducted for the Ballets Russes, without my mind's eye being completely aware of the dancers.”

“You are a fridge with wings. We're freaking ballet dancers.”

“When other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers, I kind of wanted to be a vampire.”

“Baptists never make love standing up. They're afraid someone might see them and think they're dancing.”

“I worked so hard to be so versatile in so many different things. There’s just not a lot of girls who can do ballet and flips and break dance and crazy hip-hop moves. So I would really encourage young dancers and actors to work to be as versatile as possible.”

“Life is the dancer and you are the dance.”

“There are so many acting schools these days. Maybe, the new generation of actors is forgetting that acting is more emotional than mechanical. Take dancing, today's dancers are not dancing; they're just performing a drill to some beats.”