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

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" When I'm in sneakers, it changes my body carriage. I feel more in my own skin. "

" 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 grandfather James Peck was a civil rights activist. "

" It's amazing what a resource modern technology is now for making ballets, and I film my rehearsals almost every day. "

" I never intended to dance in my own work, but we did what had to be done. "

" If I get a commission, it's like a flood of creative thought and energy. "

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

" Chicago is amazing. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" There's something refreshing about going to work with a different group of dancers. There are different ways of moving, different ways in which the institution functions. There's a contrast from place to place, so the variety and the experience of working in a different place feeds me. "

" 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?' "

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

" 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. "

" There's an innate feeling when I choreograph in juxtaposition to how I feel as a dancer. When I choreograph, I never really look into the mirror. But as dancers, we always check ourselves in the mirror. I do feel that when I choreograph, I am making a dance on my own body. Much of it is my own response to the music. "

" 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. "

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

" I always feel that the mark of a good ballet is that when you see it more than once, you get more out of it. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

" Ballet dancers are among the greatest living athletes. "

" Balanchine was just able to strike the balance between literal narrative and abstract dance. "

" 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. "

" There is something very cyclical about the way fashion designers work. They work and work and work, the collection is finally shown, and after those 15 minutes, they must start over from the beginning. This is not unlike the way I work creating new dances. "

" I like graceful and elegant partnering that gives an illusion of ease instead of emphasizing difficulty. I don't want to make something 'contemporary' or 'trendy,' because ballet doesn't progress on one track: it can branch out in many directions, and as Balanchine showed, there's always room for pure classicism and more subtle alterations of it. "

" 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 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. "