The shortcomings of Blair’s Britain — the irresistible rise of the chain store, our problem with the overweight, the hopeless anonymity of many of our city centres — are here in force.

The question of whether or not they like Southampton, Bristol, Oxford or London is irrelevant, really. They never get to see the cities.

The inside of a theater in Bristol looks pretty much like the inside of a theater in New York, which looks pretty much like the inside of a theater in Poughkeepsie, which looks....

She got a job at ENB after a lonely apprenticeship at the Royal Ballet, where she remembers “not talking for six months”. At the Royal Ballet “they look at me: ‘how dare you talk to us!’ ” There is a ranking here, too. As a first artist you don’t address a principal, you wait to be spoken to. But it’s not a bitchy company, more “a big family with spats”.

What is the worst thing about being a dancer? Not the pay, as I incorrectly heard several times. It’s the pain — constant, debilitating and all over the body. The pay, while we’re on the subject, is awful. At a base rate of £17,000, it would make nurses and teachers, even street sweepers, blanch. But a ballet dancer would never go on strike. This is a matter of pride. We are not like footballers, says Adela. Footballers don’t even do half of the things that we do. And they do it for money! Dancers, they do it because it’s just the greatest privilege in the world. “I don’t have a lot of money but, you know, I can go to the cinema,” says Rachel. Andre says: “It’s not really tragic, our life.”

But a ballet dancer would never go on strike. This is a matter of pride.

Many hide injuries to protect themselves in a career where union contracts protect jobs but offer no guarantees against adverse artistic or casting decisions. Because dance injuries tend to be chronic, dancers fear being pigeonholed as heading downhill, so some may rely heavily on prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

“Dancers are reinforced for being stoic from an early age, and often continue dancing because they think of injuries as a sign of weakness,” Ms. Hamilton said.

Common medications include nonsteroidal, over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen and aspirin, which allow injured dancers to perform. But these drugs can create a range of gastric side effects and impair performance through dizziness, headache and drowsiness.