I went to an audition for a Harry Belafonte Roaring Twenties special for choreographer Donald McKayle, but I failed.

I was a protege; by the age of 10, I was studying with ballet choreographer Anthony Tudor in a class of adults.

The way Alvin Ailey has transformed modern dance and dance in general is the fact of variety. It's a cornucopia of ways to move. There are choreographers in the company as - as diverse, as different from each other as Donald McKayle and Bill T. Jones, or Jawole Zollar and John Butler, Lar Lubovitch, you know, and Judith Jamison.

There are always decades that interest people. For me, that's the Roaring Twenties.

The choreographer for the Milton Berle show wanted me to audition. I walked away from that.

Maybe it's a generational thing, but I never wanted to be the best black dancer in the world. I just wanted to be the best.