Chalnessa Eames, a slender and muscled dancer, can catapult her body through space, dance on the tops of her toes and knows how to use movement to convey different images, characters and ideas.

Although Eames, 30, dances for Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, she said her life as a dancer started in Bellingham, where she grew up and received her first ballet lessons.

Eames said she has been dancing professionally for 11 years, has toured nationally in London and performs every week with Pacific Northwest Ballet at the 2,900-seat Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, which is used primarily by the ballet company and The Seattle Opera.

Eames said she loved growing up in Bellingham because it was a small city where she felt safe and connected to her community. 

“I had lots of friends in my neighborhood and we never locked our doors,” Eames said. “You can’t find that anymore.”

Eames said her father was a store manager for Haggen when she was a child, so she practically grew up in the store and loved getting free cookies from the bakery at Christmas.

Eames said when she was a child, her two older sisters were ice skaters and took ballet to improve their skating.

She said she started going to ballet class with her sisters,  and after she started, she knew she wanted to pursue it professionally.

“I was pretty focused,” Eames said. “I used to tell my mom, ‘don’t ever let me quit.’”

Nancy Whyte, who directs her own ballet school in Bellingham, said she was Eames’ first ballet teacher.

Eames started dancing when she was 4 years old and worked hard to make every detail of her dancing as perfect as possible, Whyte said.

“I remember once during a parents’ watch day, she came and she was holding her head so strangely,” Whyte said. “She had a muscle spasm, but she was going to soldier on anyway, no matter what.”

Eames returned to Bellingham in December 2007 to perform as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Whyte’s production of The Nutcracker. Eames said it was wonderful to perform at the same ballet school and under the same teacher she studied with as a child.

The students weren’t shy onstage and looked like they truly loved to dance and perform, Eames said.

Western junior Kim Shannon is a dance major who has taken classes at Pacific Northwest Ballet School and plans on dancing professionally in a modern dance company. Shannon said she regularly attends Pacific Northwest Ballet performances and thinks the company dancers are some of the most elite, amazing dancers she’s seen.   

“I always sit in the nosebleed section — the balcony way, way in the back,” Shannon said. “But I always feel like [the Pacific Northwest Ballet members] are dancing to me. They are good communicators onstage, they’re telling non-verbal stories with their bodies and their dancing.” 

Pacific Northwest Ballet, founded in 1972, has almost 8,000 subscribers, an operating budget of $20 million and a reputation for excellent dancers and performances, said Gary Tucker, media relations manager for the company.

For these reasons, Tucker said it is one of the largest and most prestigious ballet companies in the United States.  

Tucker said approximately 250,000 people attend the ballet's performances every year.

Eames said there is nothing as thrilling as dancing onstage in front of so many people.

“Performing is the biggest high, the biggest rush you can get,” Eames said. “The process of working in the studio for three weeks before we go on stage is part of what makes being onstage so wonderful. When the curtain goes up and you finally get to dance, it’s worth it.”

Western environmental studies professor Gigi Berardi-Allaway received a master’s in dance teaching, is a contributing editor to Dance Magazine and the author of “Finding Balance: Fitness, Health, and Training for a Lifetime in Dance.”

She said Eames is talented enough to be a principal, where she would be given leading roles.

Even if Eames is performing in a large ensemble of dancers, her skill at portraying a wide range of emotions and ability to perform different dance styles draws an audience member’s eye to her, Berardi-Allaway said.

“She lights up the stage,” Berardi-Allaway said. “She’s a very bright dancer with tremendous stage presence.”

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