Their bodies hurt, the roles are drying up and everyone’s comparing them with their younger selves. So how do ballerinas maintain their careers after hitting 40? Wendy Whelan (48) and Alessandra Ferri (52) reveal all“I felt I’d outgrown my shoes,” says Wendy Whelan. “My mind had expanded beyond what was being asked of me.” When Whelan retired from New York City Ballet last year, the art form lost one of its most incisive, poetic and adventurous ballerinas.