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.
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 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.
After I stopped dancing, I was unable to listen to beautiful music.
You're never more of an individual than when you're a happy team player.
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.
Eating a healthy diet is not just about eating a few special foods. There's a bigger picture. You need to practice moderation, eat a variety of foods, and get enough physical activity.
I loved the stage not because it provided an escape from myself or my humdrum life but because when the curtain went up I could be whoever I wanted to be, and that was true freedom - to be myself.
The particular ballet was not so important as the fact that I was physically healthy, and capable of getting out there and dancing as often as possible.
I think it was important that I learned to love to dance eventually for its own sake, as opposed to wanting to be a ballerina.
But what was my motivation was music, and the fact that I love to move around. I'm always moving around.
And I just thought, this is what I want to be. And I knew that dancing would be my chosen profession.
Fifth positions, heads, musicality, energy. Not technical things so much-getting your leg higher or doing more turns but things that would set you apart from other dancers. The only way you can be different is to be yourself If you don't find your spirit and reveal it, you just look like every other dancer.
I loved tests because it was another form of competing, a healthy competition.
Good theater should always send people away feeling changed.
I didn't care too much for ballet, because you had to be more disciplined, and you sort of looked like everyone else. It required a certain kind of conformity that I didn't feel like I wanted to do.
Do not brood. It makes the moment you are living in unavailable for learning and life.
So dancing was not something I had a great desire to do.
Of course, in the art class, I was the model.
I'm thought of as a cool, unemotional dancer, but inside I'm not.