Steps come up all the time, but not dances.
— Toni Basil
I've always been a dancer, and I will always be a dancer.
I don't know how people get into show business if their family's not in it.
I love street and I love ballet and I love to convey what I can.
I don't mind having a one-hit wonder as long as I have a career in show business, which has been fabulous.
I grew up thinking of show business as a business.
I have an inspired career other than just singing.
I did 'Viva Las Vegas' with Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret. By standing in for Ann-Margret for a week, I learned the feeling of being a star in a musical number.
I've always considered rock 'n' roll, the music and the dancing, an art form.
I think, actually, I was the first person to ever sign a simultaneous video and recording deal with a record company.
The '60s was leather soles and a wooden floor. That's why the twist, the simplest dance, was such a sensation. Everyone could do it. They just swivel their feet and the upper body fell naturally in the opposite direction.
Creating a dance is like coming up with a Chuck Berry riff.
Dance has been my lover, my doctor. I know I have my health because of this.
I feel very connected to Las Vegas. It's my hometown.
Krumping has a little anger.
I grew up in show business, so I always knew I was going to be a dancer or a performer. I knew that was my business.
I'm surprised by the success of anything I do, but it's gratifying when the public approves.
People don't connect the girl that sang 'Mickey' with the girl who was one of the seven original Lockers or the same girl who was in 'Easy Rider' or the same girl who choreographed David Bowie, Tina Turner, and Bette Midler tours. It's like I've led five lives.
I don't think my story is an unusual story for a lot of music performers. But I think that since 1982, worldwide, I have probably seen less than 3,000 American dollars in royalties.
I was a cheerleader in grammar school. There were no cheerleaders in that school I made them have them.
Some guy decided that it would be funny to put that in my Wikipedia entry. He was adamant that 'Mickey' was about Micky Dolenz. I choreographed the 'Head' movie but I didn't really know Micky at all. I knew Davy Jones much better.
Start dancing immediately. Run to the closest dance studio, and study the style of dance of the music you love. If you love hip-hop music, go to a hip-hop class. If you love salsa, take a salsa class. It will become infectious and you'll keep going back.
There's nothing better than being head cheerleader, let me tell you.
I come from a very vaudevillian family.
Mickey' is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a one-hit wonder.
If I like something, it seems a pretty good bet that other people will, too.
You street-dance in a club, you're performing. Whether anybody sees me is a whole other thing. But it doesn't matter, because it fills my void.
On my 'Mickey' video, I was the director, producer, choreographer, editor, singer - everything.
On a TV show, for instance, dancers have to be paid for a week and a half rehearsal time. So unless they're vital to a production, they're just not used.
It never dawned on me I would do anything but show business.
A diva without a venue is a maniac.
