"If you're in a company, you're dancing from 9 a.m. till 7 in the evening, and then you go home and get in a hot tub and get some Epsom salts and try to get your body goin' again. There's no social life, no anything"
About this Quote
It lands like a backstage confession that accidentally indicts an entire industry. Neve Campbell describes “being in a company” - dancer-speak for belonging to a troupe - as a daylong blur of disciplined movement, followed by a lonely, almost medical ritual of repair. The specificity does the heavy lifting: “hot tub,” “Epsom salts,” “get your body goin’ again.” That’s not glamour; that’s maintenance. The body isn’t an expressive instrument here so much as a machine that has to be coaxed back to functional after being run hard for ten straight hours.
The subtext is a quiet argument about what gets erased when we romanticize performance. “Dancing from 9 a.m. till 7” isn’t just a schedule; it’s a kind of soft captivity, where your time, energy, and even your recovery belong to the job. When she says “There’s no social life, no anything,” the bluntness matters. No poetic melancholy, no inspirational grit. Just the stark admission that total commitment can look suspiciously like deprivation.
Campbell’s status as an actress adds an extra layer: she’s a public figure associated with youth and allure, yet she’s pointing to the unsexy reality underneath stage and screen polish. It reads as a corrective to the audience’s consumption of effortless beauty. The intent isn’t to complain so much as to recalibrate the fantasy: if you want the performance, understand the cost, and understand who pays it - in hours, in isolation, in aching muscles soaking in salt to do it again tomorrow.
The subtext is a quiet argument about what gets erased when we romanticize performance. “Dancing from 9 a.m. till 7” isn’t just a schedule; it’s a kind of soft captivity, where your time, energy, and even your recovery belong to the job. When she says “There’s no social life, no anything,” the bluntness matters. No poetic melancholy, no inspirational grit. Just the stark admission that total commitment can look suspiciously like deprivation.
Campbell’s status as an actress adds an extra layer: she’s a public figure associated with youth and allure, yet she’s pointing to the unsexy reality underneath stage and screen polish. It reads as a corrective to the audience’s consumption of effortless beauty. The intent isn’t to complain so much as to recalibrate the fantasy: if you want the performance, understand the cost, and understand who pays it - in hours, in isolation, in aching muscles soaking in salt to do it again tomorrow.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work-Life Balance |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Neve
Add to List





