aiting in the theatre wings, Katherine 'Kat' Skelton feels a shot of adrenaline and excitement before her big role, but seldom nerves.
Her confidence is due to her being one of Royal New Zealand Ballet's (RNZB) longest-serving dancers, having spent 11 years with the company.
As well as doing her own performance hair and makeup, she sews her own ribbons on to her pointe shoes, destroying up to two pairs a week from frenetic dance practice.
Now 31, she has been working non-stop since the age of 4 to become the award-winning artist and soloist that she is today.
In March, she'll take to the stage for RNZB's regional Tutus on Tour, which will stop in her hometown of Tauranga, on March 6 at Baycourt.
The tour will bring together two classical ballets with two new works, which were postponed last year.
Skelton, who skipped part of a rehearsal to be interviewed over the phone, explains that an average day for her begins at 6.45am when she wakes at her Wellington home, before arriving at RNZB at 8.15am for warm-up exercises.
This is followed by a 9.30am dance class; a break; a three-hour rehearsal; lunch; another three-hour rehearsal; then home by 6.30pm for up to 60 minutes of "rolling out and stretching", and an ice foot bath if she has an injury.
Then there's dinner (she's "slight" so fuels her tank frequently, so long as it's healthy); and "homework" - going through choreography corrections and notes at a set time.
"Then it's done and I can switch off."
If it sounds rigorous, that's because it is.
She trains five days a week and the odd Saturday, with practice the only way to achieve many of the required moves.
During performance time, her days start at 12-noon so she can dance into the night.
With physically punishing work, comes injury, and she's had to take time off for a broken pinky toe but, for the most part, bounces back into action with help from RNZB's onsite physical therapist.
Inactivity goes against a dancer's nature.
She says the realisation from strangers that she's a ballet dancer is often met with surprise.
"What do you do during the day?" some inquire. While others ask: "When do you do your schooling?"
"I like that one," Skelton says, laughing.
"People find it strange that it's an actual job - and a fulltime job at that. But everyone thinks it's a pretty cool job," she says, adding no one does it for the money but you can live "comfortably and happily".
As a career, it's also intellectual - you need an understanding of music and choreography, but also how to act and perform your character. After years of training, careers are short - 20 years of performing if you're lucky - but Skelton says she's never felt in a hurry to make her mark.
"The age that people stop [dancing] is very varied, but it depends mostly on injury.
"You obviously have to make the most of it because it is a short-lived career."
She was born in England, started dancing as a preschooler, and moved to New Zealand when she was 6, taking lessons under Prue Gooch and her daughter Debbie at Dance Education Centre in Matua. On completion of her schooling, she trained at the New Zealand School of Dance from 2007 and has remained in Wellington since.
She's never felt the need to go overseas, saying dance is strong enough in New Zealand to forge a good career locally.
"I've been happy enough to do lots of different repertoire and had lots of different people as ballet masters… There's a lot of ballet support in New Zealand."
Her childhood idol was her cousin who was a ballerina, and her grandmother loved ballet - her house adorned with old ballet paintings; while her father is musical and loves performing.
She met her husband and real-life Romeo, Joseph, who is a principal dancer for RNZB, when the pair were teenagers at a dancing competition at Baycourt.
Dancers are lucky if they live with someone who understands their work, she says, describing Joseph as her "best friend".
During Covid-19 lockdown, they stayed at his parent's house, where they trained on lino flooring - moving the dining room table out on to the balcony.
Illuminated squares of Zoom popped up on the computer and they were able to take part in daily virtual ballet classes.
Returning to the stage remained anything but certain, but RNZB retained a collaborative spirit.
"We know now, that this is not a right of way. This is a great opportunity whenever you get to do it."
Performing Sleeping Beauty on stage in December was exciting and helped mental fortitude. Now, on the road again for Tutus on Tour, they've learned the choreography, and are rehearsing what will be 50:50 classical (her favourite) and contemporary ballet.
She is more than ready to get back into it - with her long-term goal to become a ballet master and teach.
But, for now, there is more dancing - and practising - to be done.
"I just love all of it, and especially, as cliche as it is, I love the tutu."
Tutus on Tour
- • March 6 at Tauranga's Baycourt, 2pm and 6.30pm. For tickets, visit ticketek.co.nz
- •Performances of White Swan pas de deux from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and Jules Perrot's Pas de Quatre (1845) will be accompanied by two works originally created for the Venus Rising season in 2020 - Andrea Schermoly's Within Without and Sarah Foster-Sproull's Ultra Folly.
