I've got so many dance heroes, and it's such a cliche, but how can I not say Michael Jackson? Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul - they are the people I remember when I was a little girl, watching their videos and trying to learn all the choreography.
I haven't felt anchored my entire life. But I kind of like it.
As I look back at the span of the Cold War in those early days, in the '50s, for example, there was a great deal of Soviet propaganda here in the United States, but it was clumsy, and it was anchored to a lot of ideological support in certain circles in America itself.
Even the smallest daily chore can be humanized with the harmony of culture.
I feel an obligation to use black dancers because there must be more opportunities for them, but not because I'm a black choreographer talking to black people.
Choreography is mentally draining, but there's a pleasure in getting into the studio with the dancers and the music.
A good dancer is not necessarily defined by great technique, skill, or ability to pick up choreography but by confidence. When you feel the music, it penetrates to your soul. Everybody's a dancer. The greatest dancer is someone who is willing to dance, not afraid.
As much as I love to travel and be on stage and perform, I knew at a very young age that I wanted to be a choreographer and a director.
Sometimes as a parent, you have to give your child that doesn't do his or her chores some tough love and withhold the allowance.
There are a lot of similarities between dancing and wrestling. The costumes are the same, the spandex and all that, but you have to be light on your feet to do both, and you have to remember choreography.
