David Hallberg Quotes

#1. 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.

David Hallberg

#2. 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.

David Hallberg

#3. There are certainly some artists in New York that I would love to work with. One is Sarah Michelson.

David Hallberg

#4. Because of the way I'm built, I constantly have to strengthen. This is sort of a ritual: I put on my tights first, and right when I'm about to put on my costume, I get down on the floor, and I plank.

David Hallberg

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

David Hallberg

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

David Hallberg

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

David Hallberg

#8. 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.

David Hallberg

#9. Ballet is incestuous. This world is smaller than small.

David Hallberg

#10. I sew my own shoes. Other male dancers don't, but I like it one way, and I've learned to do it that way.

David Hallberg

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

David Hallberg

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

David Hallberg

#13. 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.'

David Hallberg

#14. 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.

David Hallberg

#15. 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.

David Hallberg

#16. 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.

David Hallberg

#17. 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.

David Hallberg

#18. Every company has its style, and that's what makes the Bolshoi so impressive: their attack on jumps or their attack on choreography.

David Hallberg

#19. 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.

David Hallberg

#20. I stopped acting Romeo and just became Romeo.

David Hallberg

#21. I will never stop questioning. I will never stop wanting more and discovering other things and wanting to do other things. That will always be a part of me, and it's something I've come to terms with.

David Hallberg

#22. When stress sets in, and pressure, I focus.

David Hallberg

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

David Hallberg

#24. Every company has its own texture, vocabulary, and singular place in dance history, and I have always wanted to share my perspective of these world renowned institutions.

David Hallberg

#25. 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.

David Hallberg

#26. Having done so many versions, I never felt like an artist in 'Swan Lake.'

David Hallberg

#27. 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.

David Hallberg

#28. 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.

David Hallberg