A biography for Darcey Bussellhasn’t been written yet.
“I love chocolate, but it's bad.”
“Over the years, I've had two ankle operations, torn my hamstring, had my hip resurfaced, and snapped the anterior cruciate ligament in my knee.”
“As a little girl, I didn't dream of being a ballet dancer; I dreamt of being a movie star like Ginger Rogers and dancing with Fred Astaire. I used to watch the Sunday double-bills on TV and Iong to be part of what seemed a perfect Disneyland world. Astaire was a genius.”
“Since finishing my professional dancing career, I've been conscious of not letting myself go.”
“I've always been quite famous for my nose.”
“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.”
“Ballet is a healthy world despite what people might think. There's a perception that ballet dancers are skinny and unhealthy, but that's rubbish. You have to be strong, so eating regularly and healthily is essential.”
“Ever since I've given up dancing, every physiotherapist or Pilates teacher has said you have to keep moving. If I don't, I'll have a hundred times more injuries because you get weak areas on your body.”
“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.”
“We only open a couple of presents on Christmas morning; we're all about the stockings - we even get them for the dogs!”
“I wore myself out physically and mentally over my career, and I couldn't be there for my daughters in ways I should have been.”
“When I started on 'Strictly,' I was terrified. Live television seemed like the most daunting thing in the world.”
“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.”
“My mum sent me to ballet from the age of five, not because I was that into it but because I had really knock knees.”
“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.”
“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.”
“If you have enough ambition, you can create talent!”
“Weirdly, I didn't even know that I said 'yah' all the time.”
“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.”