Looking at least a decade younger than her 42 years, Bermuda's Alison Masters Smith has finally decided to hang up her pointe shoes.

Arguably the finest classical dancer Bermuda has yet produced was accorded an unusual honour when she announced her retirement from the Austin Contemporary Ballet last season. To mark her 38 years as a dancer, the company's artistic director and choreographer, Greg Easley, created a special `farewell' ballet for her, which she performed three times in the city's beautiful and historic Paramount Theatre.

Entitled `Reflections of Farewell', Easley's piece dealt with the trauma that faces almost every dancer -- that of retiring at an age when most other professional artists are reaching their prime years.

"It was a beautifully conceived, rather dramatic piece,'' says Mrs. Smith, who has been home for Christmas and the New Year. "Unusually, I had to be myself, which perhaps was the biggest challenge of my career. As a dancer, you become so accustomed to being anyone rather than yourself, either as a character or one of those `abstract' beings! Having to be myself and dealing with material that was really very emotional for me, made me feel rather vulnerable and exposed. But it went very well and I was honoured and touched to have been given a formal farewell by the company.'' The Austin American-Statesman newspaper wrote of her performance: "Smith was beautiful, an accomplished dancer in complete command of the stage both in her ex tended solo and the short pas de deux with Easley.'' Unusually, too, she was afterwards presented with the costume as a keepsake, a green, flowing silk dress by English designer Buffy Manners.

Her retirement from the stage, which indeed came rather earlier than she had planned ("I thought I had a few more years left!'') was, she insists, her own decision.

As the mother of Ashley, aged nine, the commitment to a heavy schedule of performances became more and more difficult, with her husband also frequently absent from their Texas home on business.

"Ironically, on the very day of the dress rehearsal of my farewell piece, he phoned me with the news that we were re-locating to Cambridge in England, so I suppose that made the decision easier.'' For the past few years, she had danced with the main classical company, Austin Ballet, and latterly as a permanent member of the Austin Contemporary Ballet.

"I really enjoyed myself in Texas because I was able to do everything from strictly classical ballet to contemporary. Everything was done on pointe, because this was a company with classically trained dancers -- but with a contemporary approach. So I feel I went out in style with this piece created for me. It finished things off for me in a very special way.'' During her final season, she also danced the `Diana and Actaeon' pas de deux (originally from the ballet, La Esmerelda), a leading role in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, the Evil Sorceress in `Leukothea' and the Summer Fairy in Greg Easley's production of `Cinderella'. She has also danced the role of Scheherazade in `The Story of the Storyteller'.

If there are any regrets, they are, says Mrs. Smith, that she had finally reached the very peak of her technique and that, ideally, she would have liked to end her career where it all began -- in Bermuda.

Local audiences will remember that radiant and eloquent technique when she returned home to dance the role of Effie in `La Sylphide' as a guest principal for the Bermuda Civic Ballet's 20th anniversary performance two years ago. At the age of four, she began lessons at the School of Russian Ballet and quickly revealed signs of a remarkable talent.

One of Bermuda's best dances her swan-song in Texas ballet Discussing her technique, which has always been distinguished by the flawless `line' of the true ballerina, she pays tribute to her early teachers. "I owe the very core of my training to Patricia Gray, Sallie Singleton (who was trained by the Royal Ballet) and Madame Ana Roje. The nature of the Legat school -- that style, carriage and line -- suited my body type very well, I think. I was blessed with a body that could utilise all those qualities. I am very grateful to those three people who provided the springboard to everything else that I did in later years.'' After six summers in the then Yugoslavia with Mme. Roje, she studied at the School of American Ballet (official school for the New York City Ballet).

"I wanted to go there when I was 16, but my father insisted that I did my `O' levels first and I'm very grateful for that. It's enabled me to have a much fuller life.'' In Canada she obtained an honours degree in Theatre and was principal dancer of a modern dance company there. In Halifax, she founded and operated the Russian School of Ballet for four years. It was when she married Dr. Reid Smith, however, that her life took an unexpected turn.

"He has always had to travel a lot so I made a decision to maximise my dance experience in every location we have lived in.'' This led to positions as a principal dancer with regional companies in Connecticut, California and then, Texas.

One of her treasured memories of her time in Texas was when she was chosen to dance as an extra in the Royal Ballet production of `Swan Lake' during their tour there.

"I thought we would be put through our paces by a ballet mistress but the great Anthony Dowell worked with us personally. He said he was thrilled to get properly trained dancers to work with! It was a wonderful experience to work with the Royal. I was struck by their impeccable technique, beautiful clean footwork, superb carriage: the Russian school style overlaid with that distinctive English approach is very impressive. I've never had more fun in my life than the four days I spent with them -- prancing around in the most gorgeous costumes, but not too much hard work!'' She is well aware that it is the enormous, and relatively new strength of America's regional companies which, despite an adult life of almost constant travel, has still enabled her to pursue a satisfying career far away from the traditional dance metropolis of New York.

"There are a huge number of technically proficient dancers out there now, so these vehicles have grown to accommodate some amazing talent. There are also some wonderful teachers, people who have danced with companies like the New York City Ballet or American Ballet Theatre.'' She equates the current popularity of dance throughout that country with the physical fitness craze.

"I think a lot of kids started dancing as a means of exercise. There is so much more dance going on now -- far more than even 20 years ago.'' Slightly shifting her perfect physique as she warms to this subject, she exclaims, "If you support the musculature that supports the bones you obviously have a better chance of keeping the bones in shape, so it makes sense! So I shan't stop moving -- ever! Whether it's in a dance studio, or on a treadmill, aerobics class -- whatever it takes!'' Not a person to dwell on the past, Alison Masters Smith is looking forward to the next phase of her life which, she says, includes the writing of a book on the life of her former teacher, Ana Roje.

"Fortunately, and thanks to my parents, I did go on to further education, so I have a very developed and full life behind me. I'm grateful to my grandparents, who actually paid for my first ballet lessons, my mother who made countless costumes for me -- and just about everyone else. We've had some excitement this past week with my mother being awarded the Queen's Certificate in the New Year's honours and, of course, I'm very grateful to my father who has always given me such wise advice. I have always been so close to both of them. I've been so very lucky.'' ALISON MASTERS SMITH in a scene from `Cinderella'.

TCHAIKOVSKY CONCERTO -- A spectacular leap from Alison Masters Smith in a scene from Austin Contemporary Ballet's production of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.

Photos by Lucia Uhl REFLECTIONS OF FAREWELL -- This was the ballet created specially for Alison Masters Smith at the Paramount Theatre on the occasion of her retirement from the Austin Contemporary Ballet. She is seen with partner, artistic director of the company, Greg Easley, who also choreographed the ballet for her.

THE SUMMER FAIRY -- Alison Masters Smith as the Summer Fairy in `Cinderella'.