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" I've always thought of the process of creating ballets as being this kind of team effort. It's not like being a painter, where you have your paint, and you have canvas, and you just go at it. I'm working with these living, breathing, functioning human beings, and they have their own thoughts and ideas about what works well movement-wise. "

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" I'm not a very good dancer. My feet don't point far enough; my extension is embarrassing. Dance, for me, has been hard because it's a strive for perfection. "

Justin Peck

Good

Dance

" When I put on my consumer hat, and I'm buying tickets to be entertained, I'm not interested in seeing, like, 'Don Quixote.' Unless someone really spectacular is dancing. "

Justin Peck

Hat

Dancing

" To me, dance and ballet are not so accessible. "

Justin Peck

Ballet

Accessible

" It's expensive to get studio space and dancers. My whole first three years, I was sneaking around in the studios and getting kicked out of them. It was kind of depressing. "

" I think that story ballets, as great as they might sell, they're a really dated and awkward medium to tell stories through. I think there needs to be an updated or different approach to storytelling in dance. There needs to be less of a separation between the storytelling and the dancing. "

" The idea of having a narrative guiding the viewer through and grasping their attention is a really compelling thing. "

" I try and create choreography that's in conversation with the music that the audience is hearing. "

" It's nice to have the support and infrastructure to do what I want creatively. That's kind of a rare thing to find. "

" I think ballet has a bad reputation of being stuffy and depleted. "

" I think it's interesting for people to be exposed to ballet in areas they wouldn't necessarily expect to see it. "

" There needs to be more encouragement and support for women - at an impressionable age - to explore that choreographic side of their brains. "

" The future of ballet is really in the hands of the creators, so if it's something that interests them to push the envelope with gender roles, then I think it will change. But if that's not of interest to a dance-maker, if their interest is to sort of preserve the way things have been done for the past 200 years, then nothing is going to change. "

" I would love to work with Joanna Newsom on a ballet. I think that would be amazing. She has a gift for orchestrating and composing, and I think she would be really engaging to work with. "

" I'm trying to create ballets that I would enjoy seeing. "

" I'm always interested in linking dance to mundane behavior that everyone can relate to. "

" Ballet is a classically based art form, so it comes with a certain set of rules, at least to start with; then it's about how far you want to push from there. "

" Pressure feels sort of normal to me. "

Justin Peck

Normal

Sort

" It's very difficult to switch back and forth between running rehearsals and then stepping in to dance in rehearsals as a dancer. Just to switch hats in an instant can be a little bit jarring, mostly physically, on the body. "

" I've always liked vintage posters of California beaches. "

" American ballet... is ultimately an evolutionary art form, requiring many voices to creatively carry forward. "

" My movement is usually about finding the balance between artistry, athleticism, and musicality. It always originates with a classical basis and expands outwards from that platform. "

" Chicago is amazing. "

Justin Peck

Chicago

Amazing

" I love seeing New York City Ballet from the fourth ring, just seeing the architecture of how these bodies move from above. "

" When I saw 'Hamilton,' there was so much information so fast, I had to keep up with it. I find that quality in art exhilarating. "

" I really enjoyed watching a ballerina named Denise Dabrowski who used to dance at California Ballet. She was a beautiful ballerina and role model for a lot of young dancers. "

" I grew up going on vacations with my family to New York every summer, and it's something that I always looked forward to. They'd take me to theater and shows and interesting restaurants, so I was genuinely really excited to move there. "

Justin Peck

New York

Family

" George Balanchine is my role model because his work is so varied. You can see two ballets of his and not even realize that they are by the same choreographer. "

" My philosophy on choreography is that the making of a ballet is a team effort, and we're in this together. It's not me hammering on them. It's more about how we can elevate this piece collectively to something great. "

Justin Peck

Together

Team

" Balanchine is the number one influence for me. His work was really musically driven. He and Jerome Robbins were the ones who really showed me that dance could be about the inner relation between movement and music. When I was a student first seeing their work, I was like, 'Oh, this is a thing?' "

Justin Peck

Dance

Influence

" Ballet dancers are among the greatest living athletes. "