If they can make it there . . . 2 sibling dancers from Sandy join the New York City Ballet

The music of New York pop star Billy Joel has led a pair of Sandy dancers to the New York City Ballet.

As children, Megan and Robbie Fairchild would put on performances for their neighbors to Joel's hit songs. They never stopped dancing, and now they're both part of the NYCB.

This year Megan was promoted to principal dancer, and Robbie was asked to become an apprentice.

"We always loved dancing," said Megan Fairchild, 21. "We would do performances in our back yard."

Kaelynne Antcvak, who taught the Fairchilds at Dance Concepts, said that seeing the two youngsters dancing with each other was like the song from "Annie Get Your Gun": "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better."

"They tried to outdo each other, and they loved it," Antcvak said. "But I knew they had something going when I taught them. There was a time when Megan wanted to learn how to pirouette. And I told her, in my smartalecky way, that I would teach her to pirouette when she could hold a pose on demi-pointe for one minute."

Five-year-old Megan struck a pose and held it for more than a minute while the other kids in the class, who were 8 and older, went to the barre. "When she was finished," Antcvak said, "she looked at me and said, 'Was that long enough?' "

Robbie Fairchild, 18, was more into jazz dancing than ballet. "I was into the competition thing and wanted to dance on Broadway. I still want to dance on Broadway. But I'm so honored to be asked to be an apprentice."

The Fairchild siblings were 16 and 14 when they took their first trip to New York City to attend the School of American Ballet, a school set up by NYCB. "We are lucky to have the parents we have," said Megan. "They trusted us enough to send us to New York. And they knew how important it was for us, even though they don't have any dance background."

Up to that point, the young dancers were inspired by Ballet West. Both had been involved in Willam Christensen's "The Nutcracker" and danced the roles of brother and sister Clara and Fritz.

"We were pretty naive when we went to New York the first time," said Megan. "But it opened our eyes to what ballet was all about."

"When I returned from New York, I dove into ballet training," said Robbie, who studied with Dance Concepts, the Ballet West Conservatory and the Utah Valley Regional Ballet. "I loved what I learned in New York, and I was able to study with Peter Boal. He was a major influence on me."