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" Ballet was this thing that just felt so innate in me, like I was meant to be doing this. "

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" I don't feel like my life is that of a superstar! Every day I wake up, I take the train, I go to my ballet class. My everyday life is pretty normal. "

" My childhood is a part of my story, and it's why I'm who I am today and why my career is what it is. "

" I don't eat a ton of pasta or bread. But I eat dessert almost every night, and I drink. You need a bit of balance, and I've found mine. "

" To be empathetic to everyone around you, I think, is such a powerful thing to hold. "

" Being the only African American at this level in American Ballet Theater, I feel like people are looking at me, and it's my responsibility for me to do whatever I can to provide these opportunities in communities to be able to educate them. "

" I think I get almost every piece of clothing that I buy altered and taken in just to fit me exactly the way it should. "

" I was on a path. I was going to become a principal dancer. I never let my mind rest. "

" Growing up, I was surrounded by R&B and Hip-Hop, and the closest thing I could find to dance was gymnastics which I watched on TV. So, I just used those avenues I found available right in my milieu to express what was inside of me. "

" I've always approached my career and my life, you know, one day at a time, as if this was the last day that I'm going, because you never know as an athlete and as a dancer. You never know what can happen today, tomorrow. "

" 'The Company' was interesting. I didn't love it, although it might be compelling to someone who isn't a dancer. There wasn't a lot of dialogue, and you were just kind of observing the creative process of choreography and in class. "

" Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful. And believe that anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you. "

" My curves became an integral part of who I am as a dancer, not something I needed to lose to become one. "

" I think American Ballet Theatre is setting that standard now for classical ballet, that you can dream big, and it doesn't matter what you look like, where you come from, what your background is. "

" 40 years old is about the time a principal dancer would start to think about retirement, but some go on to dance a little bit longer than that. "

" Every time I dance, I'm trying to prove myself to myself. "

" I grew up poor in San Pedro, California, sleeping on the floor of shady motels with my five siblings and not always sure when or where I'd get my next meal. "

" The classical ballet world is so exclusive and small, and a lot of people don't know about it. "

" I think, as a child, there weren't dreams. I can't recall as a child having some ultimate dream and thinking that it was possible. "

" Finding ballet gave me passion for the first time in my life. I was always very shy and just wanted to fit in; I never daydreamed about what I wanted to be when I grew up. But dancing gave me a connection to my personality that made me grow. "

" At least in my performances, the audience has become so diverse in a way that I don't think ballet has ever experienced. "

" Finding ballet was like finding this missing piece of myself. "

" Perseverance has always just been something that was in me. And it was a tool that came in very handy as a ballerina. "

" My first ballet class was on a basketball court. I'm in my gym clothes and my socks trying to do this thing called ballet. I didn't know anything about it. "

" It's weird for minorities even just to buy tickets to the ballet. We feel like it's not a part of our lives and we're not a part of that world. "

" In the ballet studio, it was such an organized and disciplined environment, like I'd never had in my life. Seeing myself in the mirror, surrounded by the classical music, that's when I started to fall in love with dance. "

" I never thought of myself as special or particularly good at anything. But once I started ballet, suddenly I had a new identity: prodigy. "

" I think that having a platform and having a voice to be seen by people beyond the classical ballet world has really been my power, I feel. "

" There are hundreds of stories I've heard from black women from my generation, generations before me, and the next, that have never been given an opportunity to fulfill their dreams. "

" My favorite role of all? Whatever I'm working on in the moment. "

" I feel like going to class every morning is so humbling. You're always working to improve, and you're always being critiqued on your next performance. It's not about what you've done. There's always room to grow. "