David Hallberg Quotes

If I can relay anything, it’s that if someone has a dream, and it isn’t the norm of what others are doing around you, it doesn’t matter. Reach for it. Go for it – because I’m a shining example of that.

Many dancers are content with the repertoire they’re given. Others are dissatisfied but don’t know why. Then there are a few like me that are curious and grab at everything. Can that curiosity thrive in the ballet world, or should it exist elsewhere? That’s the eternal question.

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.

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

Certainly, when you train as a classical dancer, you are very much influenced by ‘Giselle.’ You see it all the time; you start to learn the steps a little.

Ballet is incestuous. This world is smaller than small.

I stopped acting Romeo and just became Romeo.

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.’

No one around me was obsessed with Fred Astaire except for me. It just snowballed, really. I started with tap lessons. When I didn’t have tap shoes, I taped nickels on the bottom of my penny loafers.

With Bolshoi technique, the movements are quite large, the jumps are big, and I’m a tall dancer, so I’ve learned to use my height more, to elongate my moves, jumps and positions. I’m physically using my body more to my advantage.

To be honest, my partner Natasha is my inspiration. She is who I reference when searching for my role. I don’t emulate what she does, but her interpretation of Giselle is so fragile and sensitive and so tender. It constantly inspires me. And I feel like it’s the other way around. We have a great rapport together.

Bejart is almost never performed in New York City; critically, he just gets attacked here.

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.

New York at times runs me dry because there’s so much to do. There’s never enough time to do everything. It’s nice to have the balance in Moscow.

I think I’m the same dancer everywhere. But I’ve learned a lot with Bolshoi – the history of the theater, the technique of the theater, different nuances in my technique.

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 love the dancers in the Bolshoi, but all of my Moscow friends are outside the company. A friend introduced me to Vika Gazinskaya, a well-known Russian designer. I met her group. The rest is history.

I’ll never be satisfied in classical ballet. It’ll never be good enough. I’ll never be happy with most of my product.

When I went to Moscow, I felt I was relearning Swan Lake – which was written for the Bolshoi – and being immersed in a tradition and history I had never experienced. It took a while to adjust to living there and learning the language, but now I have lots of friends. I get the best of two completely different worlds.

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