Stepping out of the spotlight: Boston Ballet soloist Lyn Tally takes time off to plan her future. (Young Dancer[R]).

EARLIER THIS YEAR, 22-YEAR-OLD LYN Tally was living many a dancer's dream. In 1996 she won a Princess Grace Award. In 1997 she was awarded a prize at the Prix de Lausanne competition in Switzerland and she joined the Boston Ballet, quickly climbing from second-company member to soloist. And then, at the end of the ballet's 2000-2001 season, she did something few in her position have done: She decided to stop dancing for a year.

Tally is clearly talented, and it might seem that her success has come easily. But much of it can be linked to lessons she learned from difficulties and disappointments. The hurdles have taught her that there are many options within and outside of the dance world. This has given her the courage to go in search of what's most important--her own satisfaction and happiness.

Tally took her first dance class at the YMCA in Gaffney, South Carolina, at age 4. "My mom danced in college and taught adult ballet at the Y," says Tally. "She took me along, and eventually I started taking classes." When Lyn was 6, the Tallys moved to Columbia, the state capital. There, Tally began taking ballet at the Calvert-Brodie School of Dance. "I got totally wrapped up in going to class every day," she says. "I saw dancers at the studio that I looked up to and wanted to be like. I wasn't thinking about becoming professional. I just loved to dance. I'd go to the studio right after school and stay until it closed. Then I'd go home, push back all the furniture and try to move like the dancers I saw in class and on videos."

When Tally was 12, she attended the School of American Ballet's summer program and got to meet some of the famous dancers she'd admired on videotape. "That summer was incredible," she says. "It opened my eyes to what the art form could really be. I saw what dance looked like beyond South Carolina and my living room." Midway through the summer, however, her lower back began hurting. When she returned to Columbia at the end of the program, a local doctor discovered she had a cracked vertebra. No one was sure how the injury occurred, but it kept her in a back brace and out of dance class for six months.

Tally's life changed dramatically. Her best friend didn't dance, so Tally used her unexpected time off to experience normal teenage life. She hung out with friends and wasn't too concerned about getting out of shape. "If I'd been at someplace like SAB, I might have worried more because it's so intense there," says Tally, "but I always knew I'd go back to dancing."

After several months, Tally began to miss her ballet life. But when she went back to the studio she found she pined for her newfound one. Before her injury, she'd been too driven to care about anything but dance. Now she found herself caught between two worlds. "I kind of ended up trying to do it all," she says. "If I could have just socialized and performed, that would have been perfect. And that's sort of what I did. I'd skip class every now and then to spend time with my friends, but still performed every chance I got."

The next summer Tally returned to SAB's summer school and soon decided she wanted to study there year-round. But when she auditioned for SAB's regular program, she didn't get in. "I was devastated," she says. "Somebody else was holding an audition in the same studio after SAB's and my parents urged me to stay for it, but I just couldn't. I was too upset. So we flew home and I moped for two weeks." Then she saw a notice for a Boston Ballet audition that was to be held in Atlanta.

That audition was as uplifting as SAB's had been disappointing. "Almost right away they said they were interested and asked me to join BB II," says Tally, but since she was barely 15, her parents weren't sure she should. They wanted her to finish high school and didn't think she was ready to go live on her own. The ballet agreed to put the offer on hold until Tally graduated and recommended that she continue her school studies and dance training at Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida.

Tally had been thinking about leaving home to study for some time. "I felt like I had this ability that needed to be developed and I had to leave home to do it," she says. She and her parents discussed the idea. "They were very supportive," says Tally. "And I could understand why they didn't want me to go to Boston right away." So it was easy for Tally and her parents to agree on the move to Florida, where she could train, finish school, and live with other students in a supervised setting. Two years later, she joined Boston Ballet II and in less than a year was in the regular company's corps.

Looking back, Tally says it's probably better she didn't get into SAB. "If I'd just gone to SAB year-round, I would have only known their style," she says. "I think anyone who goes to a professional school should get out and study somewhere else. It gets you used to changes. In a company, people come and go all the time. You have to get used to that--and to performing different types of movement." Such changes can be emotionally as well as physically exhausting to dancers not used to dealing with them.

Tally's ability to adapt served her well at Boston Ballet, where she danced diverse roles. While still in the second company she was chosen for the first cast of Mark Morris's Maelstrom. As a corps member, she danced the lead role in Christopher Wheeldon's Firebird. And after making soloist last year, she was cast as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker.

"Dancing is great," says Tally, but she's found that she can't let it consume her. "This art is all about perfection, but that can tear you apart," she says. "You need intense desire and passion to be a dancer, but you also have to let go sometimes. Then you can come back with a clearer head." Letting go of worries after a hard day of dancing isn't easy, but in Boston, Tally found ways to relax. "This sounds so corny," she says, "but I like to take long walks to unwind." Her hikes helped her remember that the bigger world was still out there.

"I decided to stop now, while I knew I could go back if I wanted to," she says. "I was finding dancing less enjoyable and I wasn't sure if that was because of me, or the company, or something else. So I decided to take time to figure it out." At the end of Tally's sabbatical, she might return to Boston or dance in Europe. Or she might decide to follow another path and become a nutritionist. (She's taking nutrition classes at the College of Charleston in South Carolina to see if that seems right.)

"If I go back to dance, I'd like to work for a small company where people don't put too much importance on rank and just love the art," she says. And she's learned that prestige and top billing are only somewhat satisfying. "I kept thinking that being a soloist or getting more roles would make me happy. But they didn't. I have to find out what will."

Janet Weeks is Dance Magazine's Young Dancer[R] editor.