Quotes from Darcey Bussell

I do a Zumba class at least twice a week, which entertains me and keeps me fit, and I have two dogs that I walk regularly.

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.

We always want what we don't have, and I'd like a long, sophisticated nose rather than a short, turned-up one.

Sometimes I regret that I don't have a bit more fun with money. I should have spoilt myself a bit more. Life isn't going to last for ever.

If I'm dehydrated, my muscles feel almost squeaky.

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.

Fonteyn was our first proper British ballerina, and from the moment I started dancing, her image engulfed me. In my first year at the Royal Ballet School, Margot's statue was outside my dormitory. Like generations of budding ballet dancers before me, I used to touch her middle finger for luck.

I've always been quite famous for my nose.

Being a ballerina can be a very unnatural life, especially after you've had children.

Ballet requires movements which are very unnatural. With every step, you do a circular movement of the hip. You turn out from the hip and make your knees point out to the side instead of forward.

I hate when I get stiff, and I really notice that.

I loved gymnastics, and my gymnastics teacher said ballet was essential to help my dance routines in competitions. I only really went because my friends were going as well. It wasn't this kind of hidden love. Then, slowly, my friends stopped going and I thought, 'I like this. I am going to stay.'

Dancers are working their bodies just like a marathon runner would, and you have to eat to make it through a three-hour performance. Dancers put their bodies through incredible strain.

My 'new' knee now feels like a bionic knee compared with my old one.

I've come to realise that being on 'Strictly' is like being in another theatre company and performing a live production.

I was pretty rubbish when I first started dancing. I didn't understand the discipline of working on one step over and over again. If you look at it from the outside, you'd think, 'Why would anybody want to do that?' But you just want to get it perfect. It is that constant inner striving that you fall in love with.

I love Australia; it's such an outdoor life.

You don't just become a success overnight.

Diets don't come into it. You need variety and to have a good source of greens, protein, and nutrition. It is about health rather than looking right.

If you have enough ambition, you can create talent!

Being on stage taught me how to apply eyeliner.

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.

I can't imagine leaving the theatre altogether. My dressing room has become a home from home.