Actor Claire Danes has been dusting down her ballet shoes. Danes, who originally studied dance before taking acting classes in New York, has joined forces with her childhood best friend and dance partner, Ariel Rogoff Flavin.

For the past week, the pair have been performing together in downtown New York. The piece was choreographed 17 years ago by their teacher, Tamar Rogoff (Ariel's mother), and has been adapted into a work called Edith and Jenny, in which the two friends interact with each other and with old images of themselves on screens, acting in their first-ever film roles.

Danes told US newspaper Newsday she was thrilled to be performing: "On a film, it's very transient - just as you're starting to get a sense of the people you're working with, you're off to the next project. This continuity is something I need. We've been fantasising about doing our next piece when we're pregnant."