Quotes from Toni Basil

On a TV show, for instance, dancers have to be paid for a week and a half rehearsal time. So unless they're vital to a production, they're just not used.

You street-dance in a club, you're performing. Whether anybody sees me is a whole other thing. But it doesn't matter, because it fills my void.

I grew up thinking of show business as a business.

I don't know how people get into show business if their family's not in it.

I grew up in show business, so I always knew I was going to be a dancer or a performer. I knew that was my business.

There's nothing better than being head cheerleader, let me tell you.

I did 'Viva Las Vegas' with Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret. By standing in for Ann-Margret for a week, I learned the feeling of being a star in a musical number.

I love street and I love ballet and I love to convey what I can.

If I like something, it seems a pretty good bet that other people will, too.

I've always been a dancer, and I will always be a dancer.

It never dawned on me I would do anything but show business.

On my 'Mickey' video, I was the director, producer, choreographer, editor, singer - everything.

Some guy decided that it would be funny to put that in my Wikipedia entry. He was adamant that 'Mickey' was about Micky Dolenz. I choreographed the 'Head' movie but I didn't really know Micky at all. I knew Davy Jones much better.

I was a cheerleader in grammar school. There were no cheerleaders in that school I made them have them.

The '60s was leather soles and a wooden floor. That's why the twist, the simplest dance, was such a sensation. Everyone could do it. They just swivel their feet and the upper body fell naturally in the opposite direction.

I think, actually, I was the first person to ever sign a simultaneous video and recording deal with a record company.

I don't think my story is an unusual story for a lot of music performers. But I think that since 1982, worldwide, I have probably seen less than 3,000 American dollars in royalties.

Start dancing immediately. Run to the closest dance studio, and study the style of dance of the music you love. If you love hip-hop music, go to a hip-hop class. If you love salsa, take a salsa class. It will become infectious and you'll keep going back.

People don't connect the girl that sang 'Mickey' with the girl who was one of the seven original Lockers or the same girl who was in 'Easy Rider' or the same girl who choreographed David Bowie, Tina Turner, and Bette Midler tours. It's like I've led five lives.

Steps come up all the time, but not dances.

I don't mind having a one-hit wonder as long as I have a career in show business, which has been fabulous.

I feel very connected to Las Vegas. It's my hometown.

A diva without a venue is a maniac.

Krumping has a little anger.