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BALLET shoes are piled on top of a cupboard near the bed in Nicola Curry's 525-square-foot Upper West Side studio apartment. Pilates workout equipment clutters a corner. Two paintings of dancers left by the apartment's previous owner hang on a bathroom wall. On a kitchen cabinet a Post-it note is covered with tiny letters: Proverbs 3:5,6: ''Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.'' The straight-backed Miss Curry, 22, sits on an inflatable exercise ball, instead of a chair, at her minuscule round dining table, facing a photograph of Picasso on the kitchen wall. He's wearing a striped shirt and has spread out little loaves of bread on the tabletop in front of him. They look like fingers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]