NEW YORK, NY.- Is it possible for a great ballerina to take control of her destiny outside a company and find fulfilling creative expression? Alina Cojocaru, a former principal dancer with the Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet, and an adored guest star at major companies worldwide, is trying.

Cojocaru, 42, who has been freelance since 2020, has produced programs in London, New York and Japan and danced as a principal guest artist with the Hamburg Ballet. But her latest venture is her most ambitious to date: She has commissioned and produced a full-length ballet, “La Strada,” based on Federico Fellini’s 1954 film, which will open Jan. 25 at Sadler’s Wells in London.

The ballet, with choreography by Natalia Horecna, is set to music by Nino Rota, who composed for many of Fellini’s films. “La Strada” tells the tale of the simple Gelsomina, who is sold by her mother to a brutish strongman, Zampano, and obliged to act as his assistant, mistress and workhorse. Cojocaru will dance the role of Gelsomina, a character well suited to her blend of fragility and steely strength. It’s also suited to her love of dramatic roles: Her technical gifts — a beautiful extension and line, an airy jump, allied with wonderful dramatic and musical instincts — have always been subjugated to her artistic vision of a character.

Although Horecna hadn’t seen the film when Cojocaru contacted her, she agreed immediately to take on the project.

“I was so thrilled to be asked by Alina that I just said yes,” Slovakia-born Horecna, who has created dances for companies including Danish Royal Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater, said in a telephone interview. After watching the movie, her instinct was confirmed, although she said it was a challenging narrative to translate into ballet.

But “it’s such a touching, beautiful, sensitive story,” she added, and its “themes of forgiveness, devotion to others, purity and innocence are so suited to Alina,” a dancer who “has an immediate understanding of where she is strong, where vulnerable.”

There were “no limitations whatsoever” in working with Cojocaru, said Horecna, who likened her to a “ripe wine.” She “sensibly knows how to pace all,” she added, “and give that absolute maximum.”

Cojocaru showed her mettle early; born in Bucharest, Romania, she left home at 9 to train at the Kyiv Ballet School, although she didn’t speak a word of Ukrainian or Russian. At 17, she joined the Royal Ballet, and two years later, she was promoted to principal. She quickly became a major star, overcoming a serious neck injury that threatened to end her career in 2008. Then, Cojocaru left the Royal Ballet in 2013 at the height of her stardom to join English National Ballet, run at the time by her former Royal Ballet colleague Tamara Rojo.

She stayed with that company until 2020, and despite having two children (now 3 and 6) with her partner, Johan Kobborg, a former Royal Ballet principal, she maintained an unrelenting schedule of performances worldwide. (In 2014, Kobborg became artistic director of the Bucharest National Opera Ballet, and Cojocaru a principal guest artist, but they were pushed out in a messy political squabble in 2016.)

Three weeks before the opening of “La Strada,” Cojocaru found time for a video conversation from Hamburg, Germany, where she was juggling rehearsals of John Neumeier’s “Lady of the Camellias,” online meetings about “La Strada” and family obligations. (She mentioned in passing that she is also dancing in Kim Brandstrup’s “Metamorphosis,” which opens in Bath, England, the day after “La Strada” ends its run. I felt exhausted just hearing about it.)

With wide-eyed charm and soft-spoken focus, Cojocaru talked about why she wanted to do “La Strada,” her belief in the power of classical ballet and whether she would like to direct a company. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.

Q: Why “La Strada”?

A: When I was first working on John Neumeier’s ballet “Liliom” around 2011, he advised us to watch “La Strada.” [The source material for “Liliom” is the same Ferenc Molnár play that became “Carousel.”] There are similar themes; my character, Julie, is beaten by her husband, who is also a fairground character, but she finds something within herself that helps her survive. I remember being very moved by “La Strada.” It was very unusual, so sad, but at the same time something light about Gelsomina’s spirit stayed with me.

In 2020, Johan and I were sitting at the kitchen table soon after lockdown began. We were talking about the idea of commissioning a ballet. He said to me, “What was that film you really liked?” I watched it again, and thought: This is brilliant. I love what the story has to say; it’s not complicated and doesn’t have a big cast. During the pandemic there was so much rushing to quick judgment about the vaccine or behavior. I felt like here is a story without judgments — we can look at it and feel perhaps in all of us is something good.

Q: Ballerinas like Sylvie Guillem, Diana Vishneva and Natalia Osipova have also pursued independent paths but turned mainly to contemporary work. Was commissioning “La Strada” about finding a vehicle for yourself that was firmly balletic?

A: I truly believe in classical ballet, and that was part of it. Dancers today are phenomenal, even better than when I began, and apart from myself, I wanted to create opportunities. The experience of being a freelance dancer during the pandemic, and not being protected by a company, made me realize I would like to do something for other freelancers.

Also, I felt when we came out of the pandemic, ballet companies were very cautious about what they could do; there was a lot of new contemporary work around, but not new story ballets so much. As the director of a company, you are restricted in your choices. If you do your own thing, there is a little more space for choice, it’s easier to construct a creative environment that is more exploratory.

Q: Did you leave English National Ballet because you felt constricted within a company?

A: Let’s just say life showed me another door at that point. That year, 2020, was a big change in my life. I was pregnant with my second daughter, Ella, and I had to deal with other people’s decisions and choose another path. I knew I would continue to dance, although I didn’t know it would take so long to get back after a second baby, or that there would be a pandemic.

When you have these transitions in life, you think: What do I want? What do I like? And the biggest question: What can I give to this art form? I have danced in many companies. I have seen what works, what doesn’t, the director’s point of view, the dancers’ points of view. I felt I could use what I had learned.

Q: Producing a full-length ballet without the financial and practical backing of a company is not for the fainthearted. Did you have doubts?

A: I always felt it was possible. The biggest difficulty was finding a theater. It’s a new work, I’ve done nothing like this before, and it was hard to get support. We’ve done everything ourselves — hired Sadler’s Wells and, with some amazing help, have raised the money. But it’s not easy. I can’t say we have all the funds we need, and we are very reliant on ticket sales to come out of this well. But we have a plan in place for every contingency.

Q: It sounds like you might want to direct a company?

A: It’s not the right time to be a director, because I still want to dance. And having two children, loving them and wanting to do the best for them, I know I couldn’t take that on now. But “La Strada” has given me firsthand knowledge of the financial side, the creative side, and the human and management side of putting something like this together. As sole director, everything has to be approved by me, so I have to understand every aspect. It’s a way of exploring if this is something I want to go into, to be honest with myself about my own capabilities and desires.

Q: How do you envisage your career over the coming years?

A: I see myself dancing for many years. I am just now starting to feel my body as I remember it before having a second child. But I think there will be more ballets coming from my company, and perhaps I won’t dance in all of them. When you have this experience of creativity and working with people who bring everything to it, you want to share that experience with dancers and an audience. Perhaps it’s even a calling.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.