Day in a NYCB dancer’s life

WENDY Whelan, 47, stick thin, New York City Ballet principal dancer on what it takes to be a ballerina:

“Principal dancer means only leading roles. Always with the light on you. A large focus of the ballet. An orthopedic team — Xrays, specialists, therapy — is around all the time supporting you. I began at age 3. Young’uns bodies are soft. Bones are malleable. Muscles get going. It’s muscle imagination. Learn to stand well. Abdomen, back legs in alignment or your body will shift.

“Preparation’s needed. Easy to slip away. Forget one day, and you’re not sharp. Energy produces energy. Daily regimen is a twohour class beginning 10:30. Show days it’s rehearsal to 6 p.m. with one hour break. Then the show until 10:30 p.m. Since it’s hard to come down afterward, we eat as much as we can. Not just junk, protein to replenish the physical and mental stress.

“We try making it look easy. Using your back leg to soar into the air is extra unnatural. If it looks easy, then we’ve done our job.

“But things happen. In front of four girls, a quick dance, I was burnt out and didn’t know where I was. It was to be a counterpoint, the curtain was rising and I forgot the first step. Like on a Broadway stage you’d whisper to your fellow actor, ‘What’s the next line?’

“I’ve also fallen with a big kaboom! My partner helped me up. The audience went wild loving me. Then you must show how you recover. Never let it beat you.”