Beloserkovsky and Dvorovenko warming up for the opening of the American Ballet Theatre’s 70th Anniversary Spring Gala

 
  Maxim Beloserkovsky in the Paris studio of Jean-Daniel Lorieux
 
  Irina Dvorovenko in the Paris studio of Jean-Daniel Lorieux

Irina Dvorovenko and her husband, Maxim Beloserkovsky, legendary principal dancers with American Ballet Theatre, are the real-life swan and prince portrayed by Natalie Portman and her fiancé, Benjamin Millepied, in the movie Black Swan. “To be a ballerina, you must be from another world,” says Dvorovenko, whose parents were also dancers. “It’s important to be the fairy tale. It’s my duty to be beautiful both on and off the stage.”

“Ballet transforms you,” echoes Beloserkovsky. “You hear the applause and the music. You see the set, the moonlight and your colleagues in costume. Then Irina appears as the swan, and you are part of something eternal. It’s never boring for us.”

Although the famous couple are the living embodiments of the Oscar-winning character and her choreographer, Dvorovenko confided that she wasn’t inspired by Black Swan. “They only showed the dark side,” she says. “They didn’t show enough of the artistic elements.” The film also focused on the destructive affairs of the director with his ballerinas. “I was only approached once, but I said no and he respected me even more.”

And the much-ballyhooed backstabbing among the ballerinas? “Once a ballerina stole my costume. I refused to go on without it, and it was found hidden in the shower. We are friends now,” she laughs.

Designers clamor to dress Dvorovenko, a best-dressed prima ballerina assoluta who has been featured in Vogue. “My mother inspired my sense of style,” she says. “There was no fashion in our country, but my mother always looked like a million bucks without a million-dollar budget.” Her husband loves seeing her dressed to thrill. She smiles and confesses, “Max has a vision of me as a woman. I’m his fantasy; it makes him happy to see me dressed up and turning heads.” Now the duo is designing a sportswear line, due in 2012.

Beloserkovsky met Dvorovenko at the Kiev Ballet Institute in the Ukraine when he was 11 and she was 10; the romance began eight years later. “Irina was offered a tour of the US, and she picked me to be her partner,” says Beloserkovsky. “The impresario thought we were a couple and put us in one room. By the end of the tour we were involved with each other.” The pair, married 18 years, has a five-year-old daughter, Emma, who is a budding ballerina. “It’s not a job, it’s destiny,” he explains. “God gives you this talent.” Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky’s performance of Swan Lake takes place Monday, June 27 at Lincoln Center; visit abt.org