Tiler Peck wants you to know there’s more to being a ballerina than standing on your toes.
Which is why you’ll find her — discussing dance, romance and more — in AOL’s Web series, “City.Ballet,” a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of the dancers in Peck’s company, New York City Ballet.
“I think ballet should be a little mysterious, but we need to expose ourselves to draw people in,” says Peck, a top-ranked principal with the company at age 24. “It isn’t boring, like how I thought when I was young. I want people to see how much work and how much discipline it takes.”
The show is the brainchild of “Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker and her production company, Pretty Matches. Unlike the CW’s “Breaking Pointe” or “Bunheads” — the highly regarded but little-viewed series on ABC Family — there’s no plot.
Instead, 12 short episodes will all be released Monday, each dealing with a different topic, like partnering, and one you rarely hear dancers talk about publicly — injuries.
The dancers let you know about their life on the stage and off. Soloist Gina Pazcoguin talks about getting her real-estate license in preparation for life beyond fifth position. You visit at home with principal Ashley Bouder and corps member Silas Farley.
As far as Peck’s ballet career goes, it’s dramatic enough to have come from a movie script. She started dancing barely out of diapers, at her mom’s school in Bakersfield, Calif. By age 8 she was tying on pointe shoes and the next year performed in the touring production of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. At 11, she auditioned for “The Music Man” revival on Broadway — almost as a lark — and got the part.
She moved to New York with her grandmother and continued her dance training at NYCB’s school. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be a ballerina until she saw “The Nutcracker”: She turned to her father and said. “Daddy, I am going to do that some day!”
By 15, she was in the company. Within a few months she got a shot at a major role, Dewdrop, in the very same ballet.
Clive Barnes, The Post’s late great dance critic, called her “a bouncy knockout as the Dewdrop,” and prophesized: “This girl could one day be terrific. She has personality to spare and a technique that looks totally secure.”
Dewdrop was the first in a series of roles that established her as a breakout virtuoso, and her Broadway experience shines through when she’s a sweet but streetwise dame in Jerome Robbins’ “Fancy Free.” As she’s matured, she’s changed from a whiz-kid to a ballerina.
Along the way, she’s found love right in her own barre-yard: In June, she’ll marry fellow principal dancer Robert Fairchild, 26.
For them, the series may well have been “The Newlywed Game,” since they’re featured in the episode about relationships.
“They had Robbie and I sit down and asked ‘What do you think of dancing with one another?’ ” she recalls. “It was the first time we heard what the other was thinking. Luckily, 90 percent of our arguments are over a step in a ballet. We do really well for people who see one another 24/7.”
If you think she’s a knockout on camera, wait until you see her live. She’s dancing both Dewdrop and the Sugar Plum Fairy in NYCB’s “The Nutcracker” starting Nov. 29.