Suzanne Farrell Ballet Quotations

Even though I am a professional, and I know what the steps are, I don't quite know how I'm going to do them, because I haven't lived that moment yet. I always feel very insecure and I get very excited.

I didn't care too much for ballet, because you had to be more disciplined, and you sort of looked like everyone else. It required a certain kind of conformity that I didn't feel like I wanted to do.

You're never more of an individual than when you're a happy team player.

On the other hand, I think it is wonderful for everyone to take ballet classes, at any age. It gives you a discipline, it gives you a place to go. It gives you some control in your life.

When you are on stage you don't see faces. The lights are in your eyes and you see just this black void out in front of you. And yet you know there is life out there, and you have to get your message across.

When you are on stage in front of an audience, you want to engage the entire crowd. If a thousand people are in the theater, you need to dance a thousand different ways, not one-thousandth of a way.

Do not brood. It makes the moment you are living in unavailable for learning and life.

Treat each class as if it were your first.

In fact, ballet companies did not exist in the Midwest when I was a child.

The particular ballet was not so important as the fact that I was physically healthy, and capable of getting out there and dancing as often as possible.