As a New York City–based flamenco dancer, Laura Peralta makes regular pilgrimages to Spain to study the form for a few months at a time. After several hours of intense flamenco classes, her favorite thing to eat is salmorejo, a chilled tomato soup usually served with Iberian ham (jamón ibérico), crumbled hardboiled eggs, and short breadsticks called picos.

Dancers of nearly every genre need fleet feet for dazzling, pyrotechnic­ footwork. But complex, quick footwork tests almost all the technical skills that dancers strive for—balance, coordination, speed, strength—and can also be a mental game, requiring intense­ focus and the right combination of freedom and precision.