Local dancers perform in 'The Nutcracker'

Umbrella hovering above her head, a china doll tiptoes across the stage. Her bent knees lead the audience from the blue of her Chinese frock to her rapidly moving pink ballet shoes.

Chuni Goodson’s quick 14-year-old steps gracefully land her in front of the guests of honor at the palace of the Sugar Plum Fairy in Friday afternoon’s production of “The Nutcracker.”

It was her first solo performance for the Northwest Ballet Company out of Kalispell, and it came in her hometown of Bigfork at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts on Electric Avenue.

“I’m really excited, but also a little nervous just because it’s just going to be me dancing,” Chuni said before Friday’s premiere. “But I’m really glad I got it.”

The Northwest Ballet performed “The Nutcracker” Friday through Sunday.

Chunni also performed as a “snowflake demi-soloist” with one other dancer, in “The Snow Forest” during Act 1 of the show.

Two years ago Chuni was part of the “snow corps” in the same scene and performed with three other girls. That performance was around the time she first got her pointe shoes, said Chuni’s mother, Gretchen Goodson.

Pointe shoes enable ballet dancers to dance “en pointe,” or on their toes. It is something that younger dancers work towards being able to do and is reserved for older members of the company.

“As the children grow and advance, their parts grow and advance,” Gretchen said. “It’s fun to see when it all comes together.”

Gretchen’s other daughter, Bella, 11, also performed in this year’s production as a party boy during “The Christmas Party” in Act 1. Bella performed two years ago as well, but in much smaller roles as a mouse and a sheep.

Since Chuni was four and Bella was five, they’ve learned ballet through the Northwest Ballet Company. Chuni is so committed to the ballet she opted to go to Flathead High School to be closer to the ballet company for her three nights a week of practice.

“I like performing,” Chuni said. “It’s just something that I just do all the time and I’m so accustomed to doing it.”

Making bonds with the girls she’s practiced alongside for the last 10 years is one of the things she loves about it. The comraderie makes the company sort of like a big family.

Bella said she loves the challenge of constantly pushing herself to improve by learning new dance combinations.

In addition to “The Nutcracker,” the ballet company puts on two other performances a year, the “Spring Show” and the “Mother’s Day Showcase.” Both of which the girls have performed in.

Gretchen said while ballet is a big time commitment for her family, as a mother it’s worth the time because of what her children get out of it. Purely from making that commitment, her girls learn what it means to take responsibility for something.

But for Gretchen it’s also about her children learning to interact with other children and gaining the confidence to be able to express themselves. Although Gretchen was not a ballet dancer herself, she was involved in the arts through music and feels self-expression is extremely important.

“I think ballet is a wonderful opportunity for young people to learn to express themselves,” Gretchen said. “Ballet allows them to find themselves in a way. It allows them to be someone they might not have been in their regular life.”