He was the prince – a ballet dancer from the potato and onion patch of Pukekohe.

She was the princess – beautiful and graceful and crafting her ballet skills at the barre in a Matua studio.

Katherine Grange and Joseph Skelton would meet at PACANZ in 2006 – she would win dance's National Young Performers Award, and he would win a heart.

Then the fairytale couple would waft off to Wellington to live happily ever after in the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky probably could have transformed their story into a ballet score.

That's the romance, but not the reality. 'I have a broken back,” says Joseph. 'Nothing happened. Just ballet wear and tear over the years.”

'And I have had a lot of inflammation around my ankles,” says Katherine. 'Doesn't sound like much but it hasn't been easy for me to get up on pointe for a good few months now.”

Sounds like an episode of ER or a scene from a rugby club medical room.

'Ballet is all still very artistic, but as it evolves it's getting almost sport-ish, athletic,” explains Joseph. 'You are expected to jump higher, turn more, throw the girls higher, everything has to be more, more, the bar keeps getting raised.”

The movement gets increasingly technical and things have to be finished off exactly as prescribed, exactly as demanded – can't be, ‘Oh that was close enough'.

As time progresses, there's added pressure placed on the body. 'I think you are more exposed to serious injury.”

It's also why Katherine is excited about the new generation of dancers. 'They'll be expected to do more than we ever did, so the dancing will be commensurately more exciting and more spectacular.”

In the meantime it's been all rehab and no rehearsal, a few months home in Tauranga getting bodies and careers back on track.

'It's been really fortunate having an artistic director like Patricia Barker – she gave us a few months to get our injuries rehab-ed and sorted. A lot of times you are expected to dance through them and you never quite get right – it can be up and down, up and down.”

Katherine's had acupuncture and requires heat treatment before any dancing. Lots of massage and ‘special stuff' to apply to her ankle. 'It happens to pretty much all of us – all part and parcel of being 28 and a ballerina.”

But now the dance couple are back in Wellington, back into six weeks of rehearsals, followed by a six-week season of ‘Dancing with Mozart' – described in the blurb as ‘works by the choreographic titans of the 20th and 21st centuries set to the music of one of history's best loved composers'.

Royal New Zealand Ballet media and communications manager, Jeremy Brick, says Joseph and Katherine are both particularly strong at classical ballet. 'It's great to have them back for this programme.”

Then it's on the road for a month. 'Touring is cool,” says Katherine. 'We have seen a lot of the world. But you also get to see a lot of New Zealand that you wouldn't in a normal job. And small town New Zealand is always very accommodating – it respects us and is always glad to see us.”

Palmerston North is the standout stopover. 'When we finish a show there are always fans outside wanting autographs. And we never have trouble selling tickets.”

The pair have been dancing since they were four; they practice together, rehearse together, and perform together. 'It pre-occupies our whole to an extent,” says Katherine.

'And when you are amongst it, when you are in a role you really enjoy, it can take over. It's a bit of a skill separating yourself from ballet, but we're getting good at it.”

Joseph, for example, goes surfing. Normal things that normal people do. Another normal thing Joseph has been up to is dabbling in the construction industry, ‘learning the ropes' at Cooper Young Construction. Their flat deck is looking a little out of place in the carpark at the Dance Education Centre where the couple is talking to The Weekend Sun.

'Ballet doesn't go forever,” says Joseph. 'And if you don't start thinking of these things, and all of a sudden your ballet career comes to a stop, what do you do?”

While Joseph has been dabbling, Katherine has been tinkering – coaching the kids during her rehab at the Dance Education Centre. 'Every little girl wants to be a ballerina. And I have been quiet inspired assisting another generation of dancers, so teaching may be an option.”

But in the meantime, they are still dancing and still enjoying.