When I was young I was soft spoken and a little bit timid…

To become a classical ballerina, you have to move to New York when you're 12 or 11 and that becomes your life. I just…

— Jennifer Garner

Wouldn't it be great if we all grew up to be what we wanted to be? The world would be full of nurses, firemen,…

— Lily Tomlin

“O wayfarer! Yearn finds quench, not in meadows, seashores or altitude of mountain peaks; but when being and dance are one.”

— Shah Asad Rizvi

“If movements were a spark every dancer would desire to light up in flames.”

— Shah Asad Rizvi

“Burdened no more is soul for whom life flows through dance like breath.”

— Shah Asad Rizvi

“Dance as the narration of a magical story; that recites on lips, illuminates imaginations and embraces the most sacred depths of souls.”

— Shah Asad Rizvi

I wanted to be a ballerina. I studied ballet for 19 years.

— Stella Soleil

I think that the ideal physique and look of a ballerina is always changing with different eras. And it's continuing to change.

— Misty Copeland

Did I ever tell you my pet peeve?' No,' I said. People who dress up their pets to look like Little Lord Fauntleroys or…

— Jerry Spinelli

I have no interest in being a trained ballerina. People should dance how they want to dance. I want to be the funky chicken.

— Scott McClanahan

I used to want to be a war photographer, and I used to want to be a ballerina and a comedian. I used to…

— Cat Power

I've always felt like a different kind of ballerina.

— Wendy Whelan

Above all, I wanted to be appreciated as a prima ballerina who happened to be a Native American, never as someone who was an…

— Maria Tallchief

When I was growing up, I dreamed about becoming a cowgirl, a detective, a spy, a great actress, or a ballerina. Not a dentist,…

— Judy Blume

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

— Misty Copeland