NEW YORK (AP) — In every career, there are plenty of consequential decisions to be made. And they tend to get more consequential as time goes on. So it was when Gillian Murphy, one of the most admired American ballerinas for nearly three decades, began contemplating not only when, but how to retire from American Ballet Theatre.She knew she wanted to go out on a high note. Murphy, at 46, is in incredible shape; at a rehearsal earlier this week, she was leaping and twirling like colleagues in their 20s.But in what role should she take her final bow, after 29 years at ABT? Should it be as Juliet? As Giselle? The first of these ends up stabbing herself to death. The other goes mad.The best (and most athletic) option, it turned out, was to jump off a cliff. That's what Odette, the swan queen, does at the end of ABT’s version of “Swan Lake” — followed in this dramatic leap by the prince who loves her, to be joyfully reunited in the afterlife. (In real life they leap onto a mattress offstage, dust themselves off and…

After a career of nearly three decades, Gillian Murphy is hanging up her pointe shoes.