At 61, ballerina Alessandra Ferri is giving her pointe shoes one last — maybe? — glorious whirl

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. So it’s understandable if Ferri will not, even now, say “never again.” “I’m not going to think about it!” the dancer said laughingly in an interview last week, taking a break between rehearsals. Like that time she ran into choreographer Martha Clarke on the street, six years after retiring, feeling “like I was missing what I loved.” That led to a dance-theater piece called “Cheri” at New York’s Signature Theater, opposite soulful ABT principal Herman Cornejo In the audience one day was choreographer Wayne McGregor, of the Royal Ballet in London, where Ferri began her career. “What’s amazing about the world’s greatest performers, of which Alessandra is one, is that they bring the audience to them, they don't need to project OUT,” McGregor said. “Alessandra is about the age of Virginia Woolf was when she died,” McGregor notes “We're so accustomed to seeing or thinking about dance as a young person’s game.