NATCHEZ — Dancers of the Natchez Ballet Academy dipped their pointed, slippered toes into the Christmas season with a condensed performance of “The Nutcracker” for local schoolchildren Tuesday.

Children from McLaurin, Morgantown, Adams County Christian School and Frazier Primary schools were bussed in for the performance at the Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center.

School children were thrilled with the performance, which had some of them jumping up to clap and screaming with delight.

Christin Smith and Randa Morace will appear as Clara and the Sugarplum Fairy in the Natchez Ballet Academy production of “The Nutcracker.”

Smith, 10, is a fifth-grader at Morgantown Elementary. Smith said she has been dancing since she was 3 years old. This is her first time to play Clara.

“It’s exciting to be playing this role,” Smith said. “I had been dreaming of it. And I am the first African-American Clara.”

Morace, a junior at Trinity, said she had long-hoped for the role dancing the part of the Sugarplum Fairy.

“My mom used to take me to see ‘The Nutcracker,’” Morace said. “This was the part I always paid attention to — it’s so pretty and magical.”

Morace and Smith said they were nervous at the first performance for students.

“I had butterflies,” Smith said.

Morace said she did too.

“But now that we’ve done it, I’m not as scared,” she said.

Both dancers said the biggest challenges to dancing in “The Nutcracker” are the spectacular lifts that had students so excited.

Dancer Tony Newman, who plays the Nutcracker Prince, lifts dancers into the air, flips them over his shoulders and twirls them as if they weighed nothing.

Despite the level of technical difficulty required in the lifts, the dancers said hearing the audience cheer was definitely the most rewarding aspect of the performance.

“It makes me feel like I did a good job,” Morace said.

Academy director Mignon Reid described this year’s dancers as “amazing.”

“They have exceeded my expectations,” Reid said. “Both (Sugarplum Faries) Randa Morace and Caitlyn Upton have worked hard and made me proud.  My Claras — Hannah Broome and Christin Smith — are very talented young dancers. It’s almost as if they knew the choreography before we started rehearsing.”

Performances will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center. Admission is $10, and free for children 3 and under.

The Nutcracker tea will be 2 p.m. Saturday, and all are welcome to attend.

Tickets can be purchased in advance at the center or at One of a Kind gifts on Main Street.

Smith is the daughter of Andrew and Christina Smith. Morace is the daughter of Tim and Pam Morace.