I really developed an early love for ballet. Like most dancers, I am still ‘first’ a dancer. I’m very proud of it. Once you are a dancer, the physicality never leaves you, nor does the strength. Hopefully, it keeps you like an athlete.
I’m happy that people think of me as the greatest tap-dancer that ever lived. But it’s just a rumor. Because the greatest dancer that ever lived knows everything, and I don’t. I’m still learning. I still have a lot of work to do.
Just like a comedian has a certain joke or a jazz musician has a riff that they know will get the crowd, a tap dancer always has a step.
I cannot write poetically, for I am no poet. I cannot make fine artistic phrases that cast light and shadow, for I am no painter. I can neither by signs nor by pantomime express my thoughts and feelings, for I am no dancer; but I can by tones, for I am a musician.
I was very excited and interested as a background dancer or as a theatre actor or when I was working on TV, or even on the film which didn’t do well, like ‘Byomkesh.’
I am a trained dancer.
I did not want to be a tree, a flower or a wave. In a dancer’s body, we as audience must see ourselves, not the imitated behavior of everyday actions, not the phenomenon of nature, not exotic creatures from another planet, but something of the miracle that is a human being.
When I was 4 years old, I thought that I wanted to be a dancer like Michael Jackson.
When I started music, I think it was responsible for keeping me sane, because training as a dancer really kept me in good spirits amid all the crazy stuff that happened when I first became popular.
I get enough sleep. I take very good care of myself. Growing up as a dancer, you know your body so well, you know what to do to overcome something.
As a dancer, one of my many teachers along the way made the comment that who I was onstage and who I was off were two totally different people.
The retirement timing is always a tricky thing for a dancer. I think it’s different for everyone. How you say goodbye to the thing you have really focused on that much is a tough one. I’ve always intended to leave in good shape, to exit on a high note.
I never wanted to be a dancer. I was too big, I was too slow. I remember not liking it. Later on, when I came to the United States, I realized I had a skill, and when you come to this country, you realize if you have a skill and a determination, you can do anything.
I decided to go to dance school at 22, which is late for a dancer.
I sent out a tweet, ‘Dancing with the Stars’ should stop the jibber jabber. They shouldn’t make the departure of a dancer so tear jerky because nobody’s going to war.
I love doing it and I am very proud to call myself a dancer.
