This is why 'Swan Lake' is a ballerina's Mount Everest

Rehearsing “Swan Lake” a few weeks ago in a sweaty studio, trying to iron out some last-minute kinks, ballerina Unity Phelan stopped just before launching into the famed 32 fouettés — those crowd-pleasing whiplash turns on one leg performed by Odile, the devious Black Swan.

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“No fouettés today — save them for tonight,” directed Phelan’s coach at New York City Ballet, Kathleen Tracey. Dancer and coach agreed: preserving Phelan’s precious leg muscles took priority over rehearsing the fiendishly difficult move.

Phelan was a few hours away from performing the dual role of Odette and Odile for the second time, four days after her debut. It’s a goal she'd had since childhood. Achieving it at age 30 was a bucket-list moment like no other — witnessed by friends, family, “all of New Jersey” (her home state) and a few thousand others. It was also probably the most physically challenging feat of her career. Many across the world know “Swan Lake,” the most iconic of all ballets. Far fewer know just how hard the main ballerina role is to perform. As graceful and ephemeral as it appears, Odette-Odile is a dancer's Mount Everest, requiring stellar technique, prodigious training, uncommon stamina, emotional resilience—and even carbo-loading.