On Wednesday night Provins was one of 24 dancers from the West Australian Ballet to perform The Red Shoes in Wollongong.

The complex ballet about a ballet, based on a 1948 film, follows the character Victoria Page as she is forced to choose between the love of dance and love of the heart kind.

The Pennsylvania-born Provins, who performed the lead role at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre yesterday and will again tonight and tomorrow night, said the ballet was one of her most challenging.

"It is actually quite an emotional ballet for me, because it is a ballet about a ballet, and then in the end there is a love twist between Victoria and the director and the conductor," Provins said. "And she either has to choose between dancing or her lover, because in those days you couldn't have both - you either had ballet or you gave it up.

"So that was her dilemma and I find that quite tragic and I think anybody can put themselves in those shoes of being torn between two people or what to do in life. Everyone has been hurt and I know that kind of desperation."

But The Red Shoes is also physically demanding for the dancers - one of the reasons why the roles are constantly switched. "When you are Victoria, you are on stage most of the time and there are constant costume changes - where you also have to change your shoes - and then run quickly back on stage again."