The one-bedroom co-op in Queens that Calvin Royal III shares with his partner, Jacek Mysinski, is not what you’d call expansive. Mr. Royal, who was recently elevated to principal at American Ballet Theater (the third Black dancer in A.B.T. history to achieve that rank), could surely make it from the front door to the balcony in a shade under a jeté.

But who’s complaining? Not Mr. Royal, who still feels the same quiet pleasure in the apartment — all 500 square feet — that he did when he bought it in 2014. “I was just excited to have a place that was my own,” he said. “Even if it wasn’t the largest space in the city, it was mine.”

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