Center Stage

Sergei: I am your slave.
Eva Rodriguez: I'd believe it more if you weren't staring at your fucking reflection when you said it.
Instructor: If someone wants to hear profanity, Miss Rodriguez, they can take a subway. They don't need to spend sixty dollars on a ballet ticket.
[to Sergei]
Instructor: Though she has a point.

Maureen Cummings: Erik got injured today. And do you know the first thing I thought when I saw him go down?
Jim Gordon: What?
Maureen Cummings: "I wish that was me." So that made me think, you know, 'cause that's not a normal reaction. How much of what you liked about me was because I was a ballet dancer, and how much because I was me?

Eva Rodriguez: I screwed up any chance I had back in September. But I started dancing long before this stupid workshop, and I'm gonna keep on dancing long after it. So tomorrow is one more day I get to dance.

Eva Rodriguez: A girl's got a right to know what kind of hound she's saving herself for.

Jody: Cooper, you're an amazing dancer, and you're a great choreographer, but as a boyfriend... you kinda suck.

Eva Rodriguez: Truth? In terms of technique, you are behind. But the people here know what they're looking for. And on the day of you audition, they saw it. In you.
Jody Sawyer: Now all they see is the wrong body type.

Eva Rodriguez: What, did you go to a special bitch academy or something?

Eva: Being nice when you say something pricky is even prickier.

Erik Jones: I do ballet because it has nothing to do with the people. Give me tiaras and boys in tights any day.

Maureen Cummings: I'm just trying to be honest. That's what friends do.
Eva: I guess that would explain why you have so many friends.

Maureen Cummings: If this is what I wanted, I wouldn't be as unhappy as I've been. I'd have friends, I'd sleep well, I wouldn't throw up half the things that I eat.
Nancy Cummings: You watch your weight, there's nothing wrong with that!
Maureen Cummings: Mom, I'm telling you I'm unhappy and sick. I can't do this any more!
Nancy Cummings: But it's your dream. You just don't give up on your dream.
Maureen Cummings: It's your dream, and it matters more to you than anything ever did to me. So I did it, but I can't any more.
Nancy Cummings: I know what regret feels like, and I don't want that for you.
Maureen Cummings: That's what ballet would be... a life of wishing that I found something I loved, instead of something I just happened to do well. I'm not you, Mom. You didn't have the feet. I don't have the heart.

Eva Rodriguez: [Sergei drops Maureen] Careful with that one. You break it, you bought it!

Kathleen: You are in big trouble.
Cooper: She's in my ballet.
Kathleen: Oh please... she's a heartbeat away from tattooing your name on her ass.

Jody: That class, I mean, how come I can't dance like that in my ABA class?
Cooper: Because ABA has a great big stick up its ass?

Maureen Cummings: I've got priorities. I mean, you only get to be a dancer for ten years - maybe fifteen if you don't get injured. So for the next decade at least...
Jim Gordon: Hey, all I'm asking for is a date...

Charlie: Whatever you feel, just dance it.

Maureen Cummings: Look, you're a smart girl, Jody. If you turn in your application now, you can still get into a good college.
Jody Sawyer: But... I don't want to go to college. I want to dance.
Maureen Cummings: Yeah? Well so do a lot of people.

Jody Sawyer: Wait. All my life I've wanted to be one of ABC's perfect ballerinas. I wanted to be you, Juliette. But I'm not you, and I'm not perfect,I'm just me, bad feet and all, and I'm starting to think that I like that just as much. No, because if you're not going to offer me a place in the company I don't want to hear it. And if you are, I might not have the strength to say no, and then I would be spending my best dancing years in the back of a corps waving a rose back and forth, and I'm better than that. So thank you, Jonathan, for turning me into the best dancer I can be, I appreciate it more than I can say, really. Because the best dancer I can be is a principal in Cooper Neilson's new company.

Cooper: If you're still holding onto all that personal shit...
Jonathan Reeves: I don't have to hold onto anything. I got the girl.

Jody Sawyer: Margot Fonteyn didn't have great feet.
Jonathan Reeves: Well when Margot Fonteyn was on stage, you couldn't tear your eyes away from her. Pft. It can't be taught.

Instructor: Just dance the shit outta there!