(WSJ) - There are lots of aspiring actors and musicians waiting tables or tending bar in Manhattan, but there aren’t many dancers who happen to be sommeliers as well. In fact, Heidi Turzyn, wine director of Gotham Bar and Grill, could name only three: Sabra Lewis, wine director at the soon-to-open Guenter Seeger NY; Sheri Griffith at Aldo Sohm Wine Bar; and herself.

The 35-year-old Ms. Turzyn studied ballet as a young girl on Long Island and danced all through her time at Hunter College. In her early post-college years, Ms. Turzyn took a bartending job at Café D’Alsace. Dance didn’t pay very well at all. “I needed the restaurant business to survive,” she recalled.

Ms. Turzyn continued to perform but found the competition for dance jobs was fierce. “New York is so competitive,” she said. “People would come from Florida, from Europe to try out.”

And it wasn’t just a matter of competing with talented dancers from all over the world that was discouraging, but the selection process itself. Auditions didn’t necessarily even include performing. “Usually they just walk around and look at you,” she said. A company director might have a body type in mind—and a tap on the shoulder meant that dancer didn’t make the cut.

When Ms. Turzyn applied to be wine director at Gotham almost three years ago, the process was no less nerve-racking. Ms. Turzyn had worked her way up to beverage director of the David Burke restaurant group when she “auditioned” for the job at Gotham, where she had once tended bar.