My second chance at life

here she is, standing T in the doorway of

Studio 4 at the West

Australian Ballet in

Perth. She’s a tiny bird of a woman with feline eyes and cheekbones, wearing a white tulle tutu and a red leotard, her dark hair immaculately groomed and pulled back in a black bow. She is 72 years old. She is 1.52 metres tall. She weighs 37 kilograms. And she should be dead.

Sonia McNulty, who lives with her builder husband, Michael, in Warnbro, a coastal suburb about an hour north of Perth, is here to do a session with her dance partner. He is Christopher Hill, a 40-year-old former professional ballet dancer who has danced with world-renowned companies in Norway, Belgium and Australia. He is now a teacher, and he’s putting Sonia through