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In order to dance professionally, you have to start at a young age. No matter what, your muscle structure and your bones have to be groomed from a very young age. Nobody wakes up at 17 and decides to become a ballet dancer.

You have to be a little crazy to be a dancer.

I heard a lot in school, 'You've got a really great talent, but there's no way you're going to be a dancer with that body.'

Young dancers are training at a very vulnerable time in their lives, through adolescence, and while they are trying to work out who they are as people, never mind as a dancer. So train the whole person, not just the dancer.

I didn't want to be a dancer. I just did it to work my way through college. But I was always an athlete and gymnast, so it came naturally.

I've always wanted to be a professional dancer, I'd always wanted to be a ballerina. I trained for 13 years but it never came to be.

A lot of professional dancers become professional when they turn 15 or 16 years old, when they're still children. So you've trained every single waking moment up until that point for a career that could maybe only last 10 years, maybe longer if your body holds up, if your injuries are kept at bay.

A dancer's career is short - you just keep going until your legs pack up.

Certainly the life of a dancer is very difficult. The training is very hard and relentlessly grueling.

You see, dancers are quite mature people because they start performing so early. They become professionals when they start to take everyday classes.