POCATELLO — The Alliance Academy of Dance is set to continue the beloved holiday tradition of performing “The Nutcracker” ballet this week.

Whitney Morden, owner of the Alliance Academy of Dance, said the ballet will be performed Thursday through Saturday at Century High School. Performances will be at 7 p.m. each night, and there will be a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday.

“We are so excited,” Morden said. “This is our 10th anniversary as the Alliance Academy of Dance. We’ve been doing it for a ton of years.”

The academy will also perform three shows for fifth graders in the community on Wednesday, Dec. 17. These will be shortened 45-minute performances. The full performance will be two hours.

“It is such a fun thing to kick off ‘The Nutcracker’ week,” Morden said.

Every fifth grader in School District 25 has been invited to the performance, and the academy has also reached out to American Falls and the charter schools in the area to come as well.

“Our dancers love it,” Morden said. “They’re dancing for their peers. That is so fun for them.”

This year’s performance will feature new costumes and new props. Morden said she hopes this year will be even more magical for the community than ever before.

“If you’ve seen it before, you have to see it again,” Morden said. “There’s a lot of new things.”

Morden said rehearsals for the ballet started in September. The students at the Alliance Academy of Dance put in a lot of time and effort to get it ready to perform.

“It’s a huge undertaking for us,” Morden said. “Our dancers are so excited.”

All of the performers in “The Nutcracker” will be students at the Alliance Academy of Dance. There will also be two guest instructors from New York City who will be dancing the parts of Dream Clara and the Nutcracker.

“It’s really fun to see all our dancers from the community and guest artists,” Morden said. “It’s amazing what they can do.”

The best part about performing “The Nutcracker” every year for Morden is seeing the joy in the audience as they watch the performance.

“It really brings the magic of the season,” Morden said. “And it makes it so dancers have something to celebrate. When they get on stage, that’s the happiest they can be.”

“The Nutcracker” has been performed in Pocatello for a long time. The two directors of this year’s show were both dancers in the ballet when they were younger.

“They danced in it growing up, and now they’re producing this ballet,” Morden said. “It’s amazing to see it come full circle.”

Morden expressed gratitude to the community for supporting the performance of “The Nutcracker” for all these years.

“We’re grateful that Pocatello has supported us doing this ballet,” Morden said.

Tickets can be purchased online at allianceacademyofdance.com or at the door.