POCATELLO — A local 17-year-old boy is one of seven male ballet dancers in the United States to compete in a competition in Switzerland at the beginning of next year.

Carson Willey, a former student at Alliance Academy of Dance, said the competition is called the Prix de Lausanne, which is an annual competition held in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“I am one of seven boys in the United States to go,” he said.

Willey said he is in his second year at the Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia, which is where he auditioned for the competition coming up in Switzerland.

“The Rock picked five students to audition for the competition,” he said. “I was the only student out of the five to get in.”

Willey said the competition will take place from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4. He will be taking classes from ballet instructors from all over the world. After the lessons, there will be a competition.

“After I compete, there will be a round two,” he said. “I make it to round two if I get into the top 12 out of the 88 people who were accepted.”

Willey said during his audition process, he was recovering from surgery on his foot. He said he had an extra bone in his foot that was causing him problems, and he had to have it removed.

“The process was supposed to take 12 weeks to be fully recovered, but it took me a year to get all the way back to where I was,” he said.

Willey said he will be returning to Pocatello in December to dance as a guest performer with the Alliance Academy of Dance in their yearly performance of “The Nutcracker.”

“I’ll be doing five shows in Philadelphia and five with Alliance,” he said. “I’m very excited to get to dance that much and see my friends and teachers.”

Willey said his favorite part about being a ballet dancer is performing on stage. He said the classes can be boring, but the performances make it worth it.

“I love performing the full length ballets on stage,” he said. “I love the feeling of having an audience that likes to watch you dance.”

Willey will be back in Pocatello to perform in “The Nutcracker.” The performances will be held at 7 p.m. on Dec. 19 as well as 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on both Dec. 20 and Dec. 21.

All of the performances will be held at Frazier Hall on the Idaho State University campus in Pocatello. Tickets are available for purchase at allianceacademyofdance.com.