Tiler Peck, the New York City Ballet’s principal ballerina, will be in Bermuda this weekend.

As the author of dance-themed children’s books such as XO and the Katarina Ballerina series, she will be taking part in a writer-in-residence event at The Loren Hotel at Pink Beach in Smith’s.

“This will be my second trip to Bermuda,” Ms Peck told The Royal Gazette. “I came to Bermuda four years ago for two days. We did this amazing whale-watching trip. I am really looking forward to coming back and getting to see a bit more of Bermuda.”

On this trip, she will be leading a weekend of activities including a barre class for Bermuda’s young ballerinas, a meet-and-greet, and tea.

“We have a bunch of fun things scheduled,” she said. “I am very excited.”

Ms Peck grew up in Bakersfield, California, where her mother, Georgia Peck, ran a dance studio.

“As soon as I could walk, I was trying to do some form of dance, whatever that was,” she said.

Ms Peck believes she would have found her way to the barre even if her mother had not been a ballet teacher.

“I was always dancing around in the kitchen at home,” she said. “I just loved movement and music. Dance was my calling.”

Growing up on the West Coast, she did commercials and television work and imagined a career that mixed acting and jazz dance. That path brought her to New York at age 11, when she was cast in The Music Man on Broadway.

While there, she took a class at the School of American Ballet, the NYCB’s official academy.

“I fell in love with ballet when I saw NYCB perform The Nutcracker when I was 11,” she recalled. “My dad took us.”

She thought the Sugar Plum Fairy was the coolest thing she had seen.

“The production was so beautiful,” Ms Peck said. “Ever since that moment, I wanted to be in this company and I wanted to be a ballerina.”

Four years later, she became one of the youngest dancers to join the NYCB’s company. She rose through the ranks to principal by age 20.

Her ascent was not without setbacks such as injuries.

“Injury is as much a physical thing as it is a mental thing,” Ms Peck said.

She remembered going to the director’s office in tears because she had hurt her foot. She had to stop dancing for a month to heal.

“I felt like I had been working really hard and was sad having to go out right then,” she said.

She was stunned when the director comforted her by saying he was promoting her to soloist.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

At 37, she is now one of the oldest members of the NYCB.

She laughs at the idea of retirement. She is still very much in the prime of her performing career, but is already expanding her artistic reach. When The Royal Gazette spoke with Ms Peck, she was in Miami, Florida, doing choreography work.

She also has her writing and social-media influencing. Her latest book, Ballerina Big Sis, came out of a social-media series of that name.

On Instagram, Ms Peck addresses the harder conversations about dance, such as injury, mental stress and competition.

The book is aimed at children and teenagers aged 11 to 17.

“It might be an easy read for the older readers, but the advice is still very much needed,” she said. “Some mothers are buying it because they don’t come from a dance family and they want to help their child. Little children are reading it.”

One of her core messages is that talent alone is never enough.

“You have to be willing to sacrifice things and work hard,” she said. “As much effort as you put in is what comes out.”

Ms Peck believes there is room for many kinds of ballerinas.

“Somebody is going to have better feet than you, or someone might turn better than you,” she said. “What do you have that they do not have? We all have different gifts. Nobody is going to have everything.”

Talking about injury, she emphasised patience — especially for ballerinas desperate to get back on stage.

“If you come back too soon, you are likely to injure yourself again,” she said. “Really give the injury the amount of time that it needs. When it happens, you think the world is ending, but there is a positive side to it. You come back such a different dancer, almost stronger because you have learnt so much about your body and yourself.”

The Loren has a whole range of events starting on Friday that include other authors and artists such as Brisa Carleton, Fiona Davis, Greg Wands and Broadway producer Greg Nobile.

• For more information, seewww.thelorenhotels.com/bermuda/experiences/events