Dance of the muse; Allegra Kent recalls a time when her playful form was the inspiration for her husband's-and the great ballet master Balanchine's-art.

Byline: Allegra Kent

I had forgotten about this photograph-when I see it again, thoughts come tumbling into my head. It appeared 45 years ago, in the November 15, 1961, issue of Vogue, and was the first of nine pages of photos shot by Bert Stern, my husband at that time.

Why did Vogue ask me to pose for them when I didn't have a fashion model's height? What led up to it? I leap back to my childhood. In the third grade, at seven or eight, I looked around the room and thought I was totally ordinary in all ways, a humbling observation. But by age eleven, once I'd decided that ballet would be my life's work, one thing effortlessly led to another in a series ...