Quotes

[on his new arrival at the School of Julliard]: "In one place, you have the most extraordinary students and faculty, and opportunities of music, dance and drama to answer that question of, 'What can we do together that we can't do by ourselves?' It's the art of the possible."

It is a tremendous honor to have been selected as the next president of The Juilliard School. Building on collaboration has been a defining principle of my life in the arts, and I can think of no greater privilege than to help shape the future of this extraordinary institution of music, dance, and drama. I'd like to extend my thanks to Bruce Kovner, Juilliard's board of trustees, and President Polisi for this tremendous opportunity to join in the tradition of excellence that Juilliard embodies, and I am inspired to work alongside them to foster new generations of emboldened citizen artists for the twenty-first century.

In schools giving students a full education, not to create great artists but about the right to have full expression and imagination and creativity, along with an acknowledgment that everybody learns differently. You try and you fail and you try again. All those skills are useful in the workplace, too.

I like that feeling of letting loose, of not planning every step. The best performances are the ones that you just let happen.

[on the very first moment he entered his dance studio AND the School of American Ballet]: "It was on the third floor. I was 15, and it really was already clear to me that this was some enormous creative hub. There were people doing so many different types of art ... you know, I came here to become the best dancer I could, to what I considered the center of the universe. It was everything I could have hoped for ... and now there's even more history, more has happened, so there's only more fuel in the engine."

For my father, dance was just one part of a classical education. My brother and I also took Chinese lessons, studied flute, piano and guitar, and learned to ride.

I've known Julliard my whole life, essentially. I took my first class at School of American Ballet when it was still in the Juilliard building, and it's been ever-present in many ways ever since. I've had quite a lot of intersection with Joseph Polisi, the Juilliard president for last three decades. In fact, his book "The Artist as Citizen" inspired my going to the Kennedy School and a lot of the work I've done. The school asked what I thought about taking on this position. My instant reaction was that this is an unbelievable culmination of so many different things I'm passionate about.