31 Quotes by David Hallberg

I've always questioned the way dancers, myself included, must do the same role year in and year out. It's important for me to be able to say to myself, 'O.K., I don't want to be a prince anymore. I want to put on a leather jockstrap and pose.'

Russians are very discerning about ballet. They're very opinionated about what classical ballet is.

Ballet needs figures that people can recognize and relate to. People don't know ballet dancers as well as they know other artists.

Ballet is incestuous. This world is smaller than small.

Ballet is certainly appreciated in New York, but it has been a part of the Russian culture, history and heritage for hundreds of years, so it's much more instilled in the Russian blood.

The Bolshoi style is bigger and more emotional, in a way that I love. It has the freshness and intensity that is like what I've tried to achieve in my dance-acting roles.

I walk like a duck: very straight up and down. Or like a penguin. It's a dead giveaway that I'm a dancer.

I'm not one who goes to a lot of fashion shows or tries to infiltrate that world, really.

I have one coach and one coach only. His name is Alexander Vetrov. They brought him in for me when I joined the Bolshoi. He was a dancer with the Bolshoi, and we work very intensely together.