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It runs in the family: four pairs of dancer siblings on their special bond.

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Kaitlyn & Raina Gilliland

In Suki Schorer's advanced class at the School of American Ballet, it's easy to spot Kaitlyn and Raina Gilliland. "We gravitate to each other," Raina says, as her sister nods knowingly. "It's a tall thing, I guess!"

While it's true that the sisters are physically a head above the others in class (Kaitlyn is 5'10" and Raina is 5' 11"), there's an air of intrigue about both girls that makes them transfixing onstage. Both are classic balletic beauties--leggy, with noble, elegant bearing--and wonderfully exacting in technique and musicality. Kaitlyn, 20, just completed her first year in the corps of New York City Ballet (it's not unusual for company members to take class at the company-affiliated SAB) but she's already prompted star-in-the-making talk with her haunting solo turn in Eliot Feld's Etoile Polaire last year. In this year's SAB Workshop performances, Raina, 17, proved an equally compelling dancer, and was commanding in the Choleric variation of The Four Temperaments.

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For both girls, life without ballet is barely a memory. "I can't even remember that far back," Raina says. "I'd be in the dressing room with my sister and all her friends, and I thought it was so cool."

"A lot of it was Raina and I running around," Kaitlyn recalls. "I used to go in and take my mom's advanced class when I was like, 3 years old! I'd just stand at the barre in my little pink corduroys, doing my own thing." Ballet was a family affair: Their mother, Lise Houlton, danced with American Ballet Theatre and now directs Minnesota Dance Theatre, which their grandmother, Loyce Houhon, founded. "The studio was home away from home for us," Raina says.

Even outside the studio, the two were inseparable. "Best friends," Raina says. "I was always the angel; Raina was a troublemaker--a little bit," Kaitlyn adds, smiling. They remember dancing to Swan Lake in the living room, Kaitlyn inevitably in the prettier tiara. Cue the "big, loud evil music," and Raina, wearing a witch hat, would leap for a moment into the spotlight, before her sister waved her off. "It's OK," Raina laughs. "I had my time later!"

By the time Kaitlyn was ready to...

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