“The problem is not making up the steps but deciding which ones to keep.”

“No one is born a dancer. You have to want it more than anything.”

“I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.”

“I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to to dance better than myself.”

“Dancing can reveal all the mystery that music conceals.”

“Dancing is my obsession. My life.”

“I have some Russian friends. But probably only 10 percent. I don't hang out usually in the big Russian communities in Brooklyn and New Jersey.”