Tiler Peck goes from ballerina in recovery to ballerina in isolation (and Instagram celebrity)

New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Tiler Peck with her dog Cali, teaches ballet class via Instagram Live while under the stay at home order in California.

In a way, Tiler Peck spent half a year preparing for the pandemic. She just didn’t know it.

Peck, a nimble New York City Ballet star, spent the spring and summer sidelined from dance, and virtually all exercise, due to a severe herniated disk.

From April through August, she waited for her irritated spinal cushion to heal, enduring the agony of inactivity and hoping for a return to the stage at the end of the tunnel.

“It was horrible,” Peck told the Daily News. “It was six months of absolutely nothing.”

Peck tried to translate the doldrums into a time to focus. She hammered away at “Katerina Ballerina,” a series of books about a young aspiring prima ballerina that she’s writing with Broadway actor Kyle Harris. She worked on her dancewear line. She tried to stay positive.

And as summer turned to winter, she regained her sea legs and returned to ballet: first in “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker,” then in “Allegro Brillante,” then finally in “Swan Lake.”

Dancer Tiler Peck has taught ballet class via Instagram during the coronavirus crisis.

During the winter season, she said she felt like “OK, I’m really back.” Then the life-altering pandemic ground her world to a halt.

“Now I’m back to where all I can do is class again,” the 31-year-old said. “It’s hard.”

On March 14, as the coronavirus crisis forced the entertainment industry close its doors, Peck flew from New York to her parents’ home in Bakersfield, Calif. (City Ballet was out of season; its leadership canceled the spring schedule two weeks later.)

There, she has transformed from a ballerina in recovery to a ballerina in isolation — with a heaping helping of perspective supplied by her scary neck injury.

Sure, she doesn’t know when the ballet will relaunch. Or what will happen with the ballet she choreographed that was slated for later this year. Or even when she’ll get a hard copy of the first “Katerina Ballerina” book, she said wistfully last Tuesday, the official day of publication.

But she said the injury readied her for life to freeze again. Again she’s seeking the silver linings. And this time she can dance.

Which Peck does daily, at 10 a.m. California time, in ballet classes that she streams live on Instagram. She clears her mom’s kitchen counter and sets up a camera. Thousands of viewers tune into the live lessons.

“I have to do this for myself anyways, to be a professional dancer and stay in shape,” Peck said. “Just as much as I’m motivating people, they’re motivating me. Because it’s really hard to do this alone.”

She said the daily routine gives her days a sense of structure, and she brings in megastar guests including Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Garner. On Tuesday, Harris, her co-author, joined the stream to celebrate the book release. Harris, 33, is hardly a ballerina, but he played along zealously if awkwardly.

The rest of Peck’s days are busy, too.

She has continued with physical therapy for her neck injury, though it’s now conducted virtually. And after leaving home at age 11 to perform on Broadway, she’s wrapping her arms around rare family time with her parents, grandmother and sister.

Peck knows ballet will eventually return.

“Before, I couldn’t even move. I couldn’t do normal life things. I couldn’t run, I couldn’t lift my arms, I couldn’t move my head,” Peck said. “I feel grateful that I can move again, and I’m trying to hold onto all that I am appreciative for.”