Updated Oct 11, 2025 2:39 PM EDT
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The spring performance season may be on hold, but America’s top ballet dancers still need to stay in peak form. Since New York and California issued stay-at-home orders, these dancers have dreamed up inventive ways to keep training, converting their homes into makeshift studios. The shift comes with a unique set of hurdles: there’s the matter of not kicking a cherished piece of furniture mid-grande-jeté, of course, but also more basic problems to solve, like the floor itself.
“Wood floors in general are extremely slippery and therefore very dangerous to dance on,” explains Isabella Boylston, a principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre. “When you put on a pointe shoe, it’s like an ice rink.” But thanks to some resourceful thinking, she and these other celebrated dancers are making dancing at home look effortless—and pretty stylish, too.
Isabella Boylston, principal dancer, American Ballet Theatre
Location: Downtown Brooklyn, New York
Her space: In the light-filled, new-construction condo Boylston shares with her husband, Daniel Shin, the biggest room is the kitchen, so that’s where she dances, using the countertop as her barre. The mint green finishes came with the apartment when the couple bought it; the well-stocked bar cart and art wall—featuring an original photo by Boylston’s friend Zoe Gertner, paintings by Shin’s uncle in Korea, and a few prints of Boylston from The Ballerina Project—add personal touches.
How she’s using it: “I tried using our middle room, which is Dan’s workout area, but I kept kicking things. So I went back to the kitchen. I was given a piece of marley from Harlequin Floors—it’s a material with the traction you need for a pointe shoe. I’ve never been that great at giving myself class, because it’s so hard to match the workout I get in an actual ballet studio, but I think I’ve gotten better at it—I just have to discipline myself to do it. Sometimes I’ll lace up my sneakers and head outside to an empty stretch of Brooklyn Bridge Park where no one’s around, to do grande allegro—big jumps. My floor is just too hard for a lot of jumping; when I tried it on the kitchen floor, I ended up with shin splints. One fun thing I’ve been doing: I finally figured out TikTok. I did the Toosie Slide and Savage challenges—I just added my own ballet twist.”
Dores André, principal dancer, San Francisco Ballet
Location: Twin Peaks, San Francisco
Her space: Design is everything to André, who keeps her one-bedroom apartment—the lower level of a two-floor home—“very minimal and utilitarian. I see it as a canvas.” The open-plan living space, where she does most of her dancing, leans heavily on white, wood, copper, and pink tones. “My sofa is pink; my dining chairs are pink; I have a painting by my ex-boyfriend that is pink; the rug is pink,” she says with a laugh. Most of her pieces come from flea markets, Etsy, or Chairish, with a few splurges from 1stdibs.com.
How she’s using it: “I have two studios, as I call them. In the living room, the floor is concrete, so it’s really hard. I lay a Harlequin marley floor over a carpet or maybe a little yoga mat. It’s still not great—for someone who’s never in pain, I’m now sometimes in pain. We have to be careful not to overdo it, because getting injured right now would be so sad.”
“I have so many plants—all of them have names, and I just realized I’m going to have to move a big one, Ricky, ‘cause I keep hitting it. I’m using a chair as a barre, or sometimes the back of this massive canvas I want to paint someday—I flipped it over and sometimes use the wood on the back as a barre. And when it’s nice out, I do my jumps in the little backyard I have.”
Gonzalo Garcia, principal dancer, New York City Ballet
Location: Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York
His space: A little over a year ago, Garcia and his partner, filmmaker Ezra Hurwitz, bought the parlor apartment of a brownstone. A big selling point? A charming backyard garden, which the couple has turned into an intimate outdoor lounge of sorts—and now a ballet studio for Garcia, complete with a real barre and mirror. Garcia dances on the deck, framed by hydrangea, astilbe, hostas, boxwood, succulents, and a dogwood tree. The French Riviera and Mediterranean vibe he and Hurwitz love enlivens the space—cheery yellow chairs from Article, a table and couch from CB2, plus tiki torches and bistro lights. When the weather turns cooler, he dances in the bedroom, which has a giant mirror left behind by the previous owner.
How he’s using it: “I started out in the living room, but the floors—you’re so aware of balance—there are inclinations, and it was slippery. I was holding onto the wood paneling, and I was always afraid I’d pull it down! I was dying to see my body, what I was doing right and wrong, so I bought a barre and set it in front of the mirror in the bedroom. That gave me more structure for dancing. But I was waiting and waiting for good weather so I could move my marley floor and barre outside. Being able to move a little more in the garden helps. There are moments you think, ‘Oh my God, that almost felt like a real class!’ And then another day you realize you still have limitations. But within those limitations, I’m incredibly lucky to have this. The dance community is so determined—you grow up with such discipline, so no matter what, you make it work.”
Joseph Gordon and Adrian Danchig-Waring, principal dancers, New York City Ballet
Location: Shelter Island, New York
Their space: A lucky, complicated chain of events led the couple to temporarily relocate to a midcentury ranch-style home owned by their dear friends, who are City Ballet patrons. The open layout, with three skylights and a vaulted ceiling (“It’s like living in a lightbox,” says Gordon), lets them take (virtual) class in separate rooms if they want; when the weather’s nice, they head out to the expansive wraparound deck. They’ve also carried their “very wabi-sabi, boho-chic” style, as Gordon puts it, into the house, gradually adding many of their own pieces to make it feel homey: Noguchi lanterns, Pendleton blankets, African baskets from a trip to Kenya, and beeswax candles. “We’re kind of like vampires—we live by candlelight,” says Danchig-Waring with a laugh.
How they’re using it:
Gordon: “It’s all very surreal. The biggest challenge for dancers right now is that nothing compares to seven hours of dancing a day—rehearsal, class, and performances. We’ve been trying to dream up other ways to get cardio in: plyometrics, running around the yard, and biking.”
Danchig-Waring: “We talk a lot about staying motivated without a ballet master’s eye on us, and being together is a net positive—we push each other.”
Gordon: “I actually just ordered a barre to use outside. Inside, I use the windowsill in the sunroom, and it’s a bit high—though that’s better than being too low.”
Danchig-Waring: “I have the opposite problem: I have a dining chair that’s a couple inches too low for me. It’s a challenge for alignment and stability.”
Gordon: “Here, you feel like you’re living in the forest. The deck wraps around the back of the house, so when it’s nice out we have a whole different living-and-dancing space.”
Danchig-Waring: “In general, as ballet dancers, we’re so particular about the environments we’ll dance in, and this moment is making us reckon with our self-seriousness about our practice—to be freer about how we use our bodies, and how we actually pursue our artistry.”
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Rebecca Milzoff
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