Which do you think is more important in ballet: passion or perfection?

Kelly Bishop: That’s hard to say. First of all, there is no perfection in ballet. I think that’s one of the most interesting things about it, and you can probably ask the greatest living dancer today and he or she would say that they are not perfect. You just can’t attain it. They get better and better; I’m telling you today’s dancers are so much better than we were. It’s true of all athletes. They’re just doing things that we never even imagined, but the striving for perfection is what you’re doing.

I think you have to have the passion, because it’s just too hard and there are too many sacrifices you have to make in the world. Even in just the social life and in any kind of a life, if you don’t have the passion, you might get a couple of professional jobs, but you won’t stick with it because it’s too hard. There are other ways to make a living that don’t drain you and beat you up and hurt you the way dancing does. So I guess if it’s one or the other, it would have to be the passion.