Sarah Hay

“I've been with Semperoper Ballet in Dresden, Germany, for five years - I wanted to escape the competitive dance world and go somewhere where I felt appreciated for my talents. Stateside, it was always kind of a struggle. And the competition? Not into it.”

“I've been in companies where they have galas. U.S. companies aren't government-funded, so they invite wealthier people to come to these events. It's a very glamorous art form. They send you off to talk to bankers, and they make you feel objectified in a way.”

“There's only a certain amount of space in every ballet company. You're basically on a team. You want to succeed as a group but all want to have the same roles.”

“Women should be happy with their bodies. Not being afraid of yourself is very empowering.”

“I love playing a role, anything that's dramatic. I'm enjoying living that kind of life: being someone else, getting to die, being a temptress. I enjoy being someone else on stage.”

“The amount of effort and energy that goes into being an actor is something that I can't compare to anything else.”

“Instead of watching cartoons when I was little, I had Russian ballet videos from, like, the 1950s and 1940s.”

“I like vintage clothes, a lot of '80s band shirts. I wear a lot of my boyfriend's clothes, too.”

“I prefer to be covered. I don't wear a lot of low-cut things. I'd rather keep the attention to my brain, my face.”

“I want to act in a Tarantino movie and be a vixen in one of his films. Maybe I'll secretly drop an episode of 'Flesh and Bone' in his mailbox and see what he thinks.”

“I've danced since I was 5 and went to the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center at 7.”

“I went to school in New York and grew up in and out of New York. I love it, and I miss it, and every time I go back, I think, 'Why am I in Germany?' I do know that my career is really important to me, and in Germany, they've always been so much more supportive than my previous engagements in the dance world.”

“I'm definitely happier dancing in Germany; in the U.S., there's a different level of competition. I find in general that I try to get my voice heard about protecting women. It comes from everything I've been through personally - I'm opinionated, and that doesn't make it that easy.”

“I'm not the most confident dancer, to be honest. Dancing on film was very difficult for me because you can see it after it's been done.”

“I like my body. I don't want to have to change it for anything - even if that means I have to take a step down as a dancer. I don't think I'm ever going to sacrifice my figure for anyone else to accept me.”

“I'm a very sensitive person by nature. Things move me very easily, like music or videos on Facebook, and I feel for people.”

“I would have to change my entire life if I went into acting. I dance eight hours a day, and then suddenly to be sitting on a set for 12 hours a day is a big difference for my health.”

“I love to play a character. If I'm playing Cinderella or Aurora in 'Sleeping Beauty' or something like that, then I enjoy classical a lot. But to do just a two-minute solo, purely to show classical aesthetic, is not my favorite thing to do.”

“I'm more a 1950s hourglass shape.”

“I was kind of a loser at ballet school. It's all rich kids, and I was not a wealthy kid. I didn't have the Chanel butterfly clip everyone else did.”