• Marie-Agnés

-I love dance, but it's a part of me. The word "love" is too weak for dancing. Dancing is... Love is not the word. It's something that devours you. It's stronger than love.
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-I get great pleasure out of dancing. More and more so. I get carried away by the music, my moods and feelings and what I want to express. Nothing negative happens when I go on stage.
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-We're trained since childhood. So I don't really know if we have a special discipline or behaviour. Maybe people on the outside notice it more. But we're conditioned from age 9 to be independent, disciplined. To know what we want... Even as children, playtime was very restricted. We could only play evenings. At age 9 , you only had from 7 to 9 p.m. to play. You worked all day long. So, sure, it makes you for life.
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-On tour there's no mirror. You're often on the stage, so there's no mirror there. So I look at my shadow on the floor and I use it to correct my movements. So that I see a if foot's wrong in my shadow.
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-I love my time at dance school. It didn't leave scars. I didn't have teachers who were violent or mean. Strict teachers, sure... I got some whacks. It didn't bother me. I came out of it okay.

Marie-Agnés Gillot in George Balanchine's Jewels.