So I've said.

If you're a weak human being, your ART - whatever shape it may take - will reflect your weakness.
If you have no true JOY, LOVE, PASSION in your LIFE, then your ART will be empty of those.
I've met a few assholes who were very talented in their art (yes, there are people who are ugly human beings but manage to be beautiful in their artistic work...go figure how!???) but, somehow, that low character they are so proud of in their private lives always end up showing in their work.

For me, the connection has always been clear and DIRECT: I dance, choreograph, teach, write as a MIRROR of who I am and how I LIVE. If there is a predominance of JOY in my LIFE, then my work will reflect that. If I am going through hard times, then I will turn them into ART and produce the alchemic job of a magician, turning sadness and fear into happiness and FREEDOM. I grab my LIFE with my own hands and shape it into ART.
For that, I need my LIFE to be FULL of REAL stuff: REAL me, REAL love in all forms, REAL friends (even if the REAL ones are very few), REAL work of quality (even if I m punished for not surrendering to the dirty system that asks me to sell my body and soul to the devils), REAL tenderness, even REAL anger and sadness...

The acting does NOT substitute the REAL thing in DANCING. Many dancers ACT on stage and are convinced the trick will do. I m not so sure about that. For me, there are NO tricks, no acting while on stage. Or you open yourself and show your LIFE to your audience, or you will only be a fake, weak approximation of a dancer.

Being vulnerable is the quality of the STRONG. Having a QUALITY LIFE to share with your audiences is the quality of the RARE human beings.
Strong individuals, as strong artists.
For me, they are the same.