The great W. C. Fields was known for telling his fellow thespians not to work with children or animals, but that’s advice Frances Chung is perfectly willing to ignore. This weekend, when Chung stars in Goh Ballet’s annual Christmas production of The Nutcracker, she’ll be sharing the stage with dozens of kids and a scurrying army of mice, yet she’s quick to assure the Straight that she doesn’t anticipate any problems.

“You know, children are a lot more professional than you would probably give them credit for,” the Bay Area–based dancer says in a Skype interview from Mexico City. “All the kids we work with at the San Francisco Ballet school, and I know for sure with the Goh Ballet, they’ll be at the right place at the right time. And also they’ve probably been rehearsing Nutcracker for the last year, so I’m not worried about it at all!”

Chung says this from experience. Not only has she been principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet since 2009, she got her start right here in Vancouver, as a student at the Goh Ballet Academy.

“It was all-encompassing,” she notes. “We spent all day and all night training. I mean, I probably spend more time training now, actually, but Goh Ballet gave me the best foundation I could have as a classical-ballet dancer. There are different styles in classical ballet: there’s the Russian style, the French style, the English style, and I got a taste of everything. Now, working with a professional company, we often do works by French choreographers and then something that’s a little more Russian-based, so they gave me a really, really good foundation to be able to grow from.”

Dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy to Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s music is a bit different than what Chung’s been up to in Mexico City. There, she’s been part of the annual Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, where she’s been helping emerging choreographer Myles Thatcher develop new work under the guidance of American Ballet Theatre artist in residence Alexei Ratmansky. Understandably, she hasn’t even had time to look at Anna-Marie Holmes’s notes for the Goh version of the seasonal classic, but jumping from the very new to the truly timeless doesn’t faze Chung in the least.

“It’s something that I’ve been doing ever since I became a professional dancer,” she notes. “It’s what all the major ballet companies are doing. We still do all the classics—Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, stuff like that—but we have several new choreographers come in every year, and so we’re always learning new works.

“And, you know, because I’ve done Nutcracker for the last 15 years I know the music very well,” she adds. “It’s Tchaikovsky and it’s very easy to count to, so learning a new version is not as challenging as learning a new piece.”

Beyond that, Chung is looking forward to making her long-delayed local debut as a professional.

“I left when I was 17, and I’m 32 now, and this is my first performance back in Vancouver,” she says, noting that members of her extended family have been snapping up tickets for opening night. “So I’m excited to be back home and performing for the city I grew up and trained in.”

Goh Ballet presents The Nutcracker at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts from December 17 to 22.