I do feel blessed to have small ears - I've never felt self-conscious when my hair is swept back. My feet are a different story - I grew up being painfully aware of them because they are so long.
— Darcey Bussell
I'm not a big cook at all, but anything easy and quick, like pasta, I'm up to. My husband cooks for me because he finds cooking relaxing.
I've always been quite conscious of it, though I don't know why. I would never overspend, and I have to know exactly what I've got so that I avoid going into overdraft. I watch my pennies, and I'm quite thrifty.
Before a show, I usually give myself two-and-a-half hours to get ready. I prepare my shoes first. New ballet pumps can sound like tap shoes. You have to take the noise out of them by hitting them against stone. It takes half an hour to do each pair, and I can go through three pairs in one night.
For every dancer, no matter how amazing your career, there's more to life than ballet. Being adored by your audience, it's only part of the story.
Classical ballet is very extreme. You're doing it six days a week, and it's a kind of obsession of perfecting a move. So every muscle in your body has been stretched and tightened, stretched and tightened.
A teacher's not going to bother being tough on you for no reason; it's when they're not paying you attention that you should worry.
The hardest thing about 'Strictly' is having to sit still for so long; it just about kills me.
I love Australia; it's such an outdoor life.
I always knew I was a bit different from my friends, had too much energy, and suddenly I could get it all out with ballet.
I wanted to inspire every little girl who wants to be a dancer to fire their imagination about the joys of being on the stage.
I danced so intensely, I learned the hard way that sometimes you can push your body too far.
When I had kids, I had to work out how to keep my stamina up. I learned the power of protein and eating a variety of foods.
My husband is Australian, and my family is scattered around the U.K. and France mostly, but we try to get a big group together for the holidays.
The orthopaedic surgeon said that if ever I had hip or groin pain, I should rest until the pain went. However, resting is not part of a dancer's life - so I just danced through the pain.
I'm a size 8-10. I never weigh myself - I go on how tight my jeans are.
I would love more children, but no. I'm very lucky to have had my two.
We always want what we don't have, and I'd like a long, sophisticated nose rather than a short, turned-up one.
If I had a caterer that lived at home, it would be fabulous!
I am damn good with money.
I hate throwing personal things away, especially my cards. As I know I won't be dancing for ever, these are the things that I will look back on.
I hate exercise when it's a regime, but I love a bit of dance, just moving the whole body.
I know, for me, dance did inspire me. Not just in how I feel but that confidence of being able to hold myself and come into a room and just feel comfortable with my body and how I stand and how you present yourself and just how you wear clothes, even.
I joined the Royal Ballet School when I was 13. Before then, I'd done ballet twice a week after school. The rest of my class had started aged 11, so I'd missed two years and was really far behind.
Now I'm on television, I'm far more conscious of my skin than I used to be - I would often leave the theatre with layers of pancake make-up still on my face, but on a medium such as TV, I have to be more fastidious.
I used to wear long jumpers, but they made me look like a bag tied up in the middle.
Dance is a great way to express yourself.
Dancing has always been a passion for me, one that I will probably never be rid of.
Dancers are working their bodies just like a marathon runner would, and you have to eat to make it through a three-hour performance. Dancers put their bodies through incredible strain.
On Boxing Day, we always go for a walk in our wellies with the dogs, no matter where we are.
For me, in my life, dyslexia has been a little bit of a blessing. It helped me find my strength and directed me towards what I really wanted to do.
Ballet requires movements which are very unnatural. With every step, you do a circular movement of the hip. You turn out from the hip and make your knees point out to the side instead of forward.
I am not a big vitamin-taker. I have vitamin C during the winter, but eating lots of fruit and veg does the trick.
When I coach dancers, I always like to get on the dance floor with them or describe something by showing them.
My main vice is Herta frankfurters - it's amazing that they stay fresh for ages. They're not very healthy, but they are my treat.
Sometimes I regret that I don't have a bit more fun with money. I should have spoilt myself a bit more. Life isn't going to last for ever.
As long as everything is happy at home, I can be totally selfish at work.
I can't imagine leaving the theatre altogether. My dressing room has become a home from home.
I hate when I get stiff, and I really notice that.
You don't just become a success overnight.
Fonteyn was our first proper British ballerina, and from the moment I started dancing, her image engulfed me. In my first year at the Royal Ballet School, Margot's statue was outside my dormitory. Like generations of budding ballet dancers before me, I used to touch her middle finger for luck.
I'm a grazer by nature - fruit, nuts - but I try to discipline myself and sit down for regular meals when the girls are around, as I want to instil good habits in them.
I suppose you could say there is an in-built stubbornness to me.
When I started, there was a very strong image of what the ballerina was supposed to be in her tights and her costume, and then I started doing photo shoots in bomber boots, and it wasn't seen as the done thing.
Being a full-time mother is one of the biggest jobs in the world; it's like another career for me. I love every moment of it - even the challenge of making cupcakes.
If I'm dehydrated, my muscles feel almost squeaky.
We only open a couple of presents on Christmas morning; we're all about the stockings - we even get them for the dogs!
I had once been told my ability to read would only reach that of a ten-year-old, but I was determined to achieve more.
I need to have dark chocolate in the cupboard - Green & Black's is good, but any will do.
Since finishing my professional dancing career, I've been conscious of not letting myself go.
