“At 41, [Alessandra] Ferri is celebrating her 20th year as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theater. How she has managed to endure the broken rhythm of rehearsal – wait, repeat, discuss – for so many years is a minor miracle, physically speaking… Her limbs are spare and muscled. Everything extra has been stripped away from her birdlike frame, and after 37 years of practice, nothing unnecessary remains. Ms. Ferri has herself noticed the purifying effects time can have on the body.”