FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Stepping in Tune to All Right Moves

With the patience of a mother and the artistic skill of a prima donna, Salwa Rizkalla showed one of her top ballerinas moves that would make her better on her toes.

Rizkalla rehearsed dancers on a recent morning inside her studio for this weekend’s production of “The Nutcracker,” performed by her nonprofit classical ballet company.

“You see a result every day. You see their hard work. Day after day, you see your ballerinas become more accomplished,” said Rizkalla, artistic director and owner of Southland Ballet Academy, who has more than 20 years of teaching experience. “I feel like their mother. These girls are like my girls. There’s nothing that gives you such a reward as ballet gives.”

Thirteen years ago, Rizkalla, 46, and her family moved from Egypt to Fountain Valley. The move was prompted by a job opportunity here for her husband, Sabri. But there was another reason for the move. “We came here for religious and political stability,” said Rizkalla, who is Catholic.

In coming here, Rizkalla left behind family roots and ballet beginnings.

At 9, she was accepted into Egypt’s only ballet school operated by Russian masters of the Bolshoi and Leningrad ballet schools.

“I didn’t know a lot about it,” said Rizkalla, whose two sons are not interested in ballet. However, by her second year in the nine-year program, “no one could take me out. I just fell in love with the plie,” she said.

During her career, Rizkalla performed in leading and solo roles, but has focused on teaching to carry on the Vaganova tradition of classical ballet that she was taught.

“It’s the most sophisticated method of ballet,” she said. “It’s very defined and detailed, like needlepoint.”

Rizkalla opened her own small studio in 1983, where she taught about 15 students and worked part time in a clerical job to pay the rent. Three years later, she moved to her current studio on Garfield Avenue to accommodate the growing number of dancers.

Today, Rizkalla has about 300 students, eight of them boys. She founded Festival Ballet Theatre, a performing company to showcase her young dancers and a steppingstone for aspiring professionals.

The ballet company puts on three community productions a year, including the fifth annual production of “The Nutcracker” today and Sunday at Huntington Beach High School Auditorium, 1905 Main St.

“The Nutcracker” performances are at 2 and 7 p.m. today and at 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for children, seniors and groups of 20 or more. Bring an unwrapped new toy to either of the two evening performances to be donated to Orangewood Children’s Home and receive a $2 discount on a ticket. For more information, call (714) 962-5440.

One company dancer is Rebecca Thompson, 16, of Huntington Beach. She has been Rizkalla’s student for eight years and is already dancing professionally. “She is special because she teaches Russian classical ballet, and at the time I started to dance, it was hard to find,” Thompson said.

Thompson, sharing the lead role of the Sugarplum Fairy in “The Nutcracker,” said her teacher is “like a second mom to me. She’s a very caring person and supports me a lot. She’s one of the few good teachers. She knows what she’s talking about.”