Suzanne Farrell (born August 16, 1945) is an American ballerina and the founder of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
As soon as I hear music, something in me starts to vibrate.
In fact, ballet companies did not exist in the Midwest when I was a child.
When you are on stage you don't see faces. The lights are in your eyes and you see just this black void out in front of you. And yet you know there is life out there, and you have to get your message across.
I liked tap, because I liked hearing the results of my movements.
I had a wonderful childhood, coming from Cincinnati, and I think that it was great going into the life that I was going to have, where you have to start young as a dancer.
I had two sisters, and we would love to get dressed up and pretend that we were chic, sophisticated ladies. And I think that was a great sort of preparation, in a way.
I could work out a lot of my emotions by going to class and dancing.
When you get on stage, you can be anything. You are removed from reality in a way, the real world.
And I just thought, this is what I want to be. And I knew that dancing would be my chosen profession.
I used to love to play dress-up, where you get your mother's or your grandmother's dresses and high heels.
You're never more of an individual than when you're a happy team player.
The body can do amazing things in a situation when it is really called for.
After I stopped dancing, I was unable to listen to beautiful music.
I set as my goal to be the best dancer I could be. Not the most famous, or the highest paid dancer, just the best I could be. Out of this discipline came great freedom and calm.
I was very much of a tomboy.
I liked Latin, I like languages, I liked all the myths, and the Roman tales that we were required to translate in Latin, and all these interesting people who were never quite what they thought they would be or seemed to be.
Treat each class as if it were your first.
The arts are the hospitals for our souls.