“Want” and “Need”

The other day I heard a saying that George Balanchine used to say, “You don’t want what you don’t need”.

This is true on so many levels.  Do you need a new pair of shoes?  Do you need that new Nigela Lawson cookery book?  Do you need that lonely cream filled donut sat in the corner of the bakery, begging to be eaten?

There are lots of things that we don’t need, however we want it, but is it really what we want?

In auditions, if you have been asked to dance a triple pirouette, you dance a triple pirouette, not a double, not four, but a clean triple pirouette.  The panel do not want to see less or more, they have requested a particular number for a reason.  It may be to fit to the music or because they need dancers that are able to do more that a double pirouette.  You don’t need to show that you can do multiple turns if they haven't been asked for.