"If you really want to do this, we'll do whatever it takes," Abra Rudisill's mother told her.

True to her word, Rudisill's mother let her live with friends at age 12 so she could train in Santa Fe at Ballet Del Monte Sol. And when Rudisill turned 16, her mother dropped her off in San Francisco to enroll at the San Francisco Ballet School.

"Sometimes I look back," says Rudisill, "and think my parents must have been nuts!"

But Rudisill fulfilled her dream and the potential that her teachers saw in her. She joined the San Francisco Dance Theater and won a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet Summer Program in San Antonio, Texas. Rudisill then toured nationally and internationally with Pavlova Celebration before joining the Oakland Ballet as a prima ballerina in 1982. She danced with the company for 20 years before retiring in 2002.

In 2003, Rudisill opened her own ballet school on Park Street, home now to a dance school, the Alameda Ballet Academy, and a company, the Alameda Civic Ballet. 

When did you start ballet? I started dancing at when I was six in Pennsylvania. Then my family moved to rural New Mexico. My mom was a leather craftsman and wanted to live "off the grid."

Why were you drawn to ballet? I liked the challenge of it, that it made me use all my facilities: It combines body, mind, my whole self. I like the work of it. And I have always loved being in the studio. I still do.

What about performing? Some people get into dancing because they want to be on stage in a fancy costume. That was not it for me. Actually, performing used to make me really, really nervous. Sometimes now people ask me if I miss performing, but I don't. I feel lucky that I had a fulfiling career, but I was ready to go on to something else.

What was the transition from performer to artistic director like for you? The part of it where I was no longer part of a company was difficult. Suddenly, my world was gone. You dance all day every day so you don't have a lot of outside relationships. I felt really alone and didn't know what to do with myself.

What is it like running your own company? In the beginning, although my title was artistic director, I did everything. That almost killed me. Now I have staff and I've learned to delegate and let go. I also feel like I'm doing what I'm meant to do. That my career had the absolute right progression of everything. I didn't understand it then, but now I see how it fits in.

Most people don't know what an artistic director does. What is your role? The artistic director has the vision and makes the artistic decisions. One of the hardest things about being an artistic director is talking about dance, especially the creative part. Sometimes when you try to pick it apart, the magic goes away.

Nutcracker is a huge production. Talk a bit about this year's show. I enjoy doing Nutcracker every year. It's like meeting an old friend. You do roles over and over again and get better and better. We have 150 dancers. Six are guest artists, and we have a hundred are little children. The rest are apprentices with the company. We also have just as many volunteers behind the scenes. I don't know what we'd do without those volunteers.

When does work on the Nutcracker start? As soon as the last year's Nutcracker is over. In January, we have to make sure we have a permits to put up the banners and that we have the theater reserved. I try to have all of the advertising and graphics done by August. At the end of September we do auditions, then casting. Rehearsals start in October and continue until the performances, which this year are on Dec. 18 and 19.

Is it the same choreography and show every year? For the most part. But it's not this warhorse that we pull out each year. I choreographed this version based on our capabilities and so the children could participate. There are a few dances here and there that I've delegated to other people. For instance, Denise Brady did all of the Act One parent vintage dancing because that's her specialty. Sometimes, guest artists will know another version with different choreography and it's too much for them to learn my version, so we use their version. That's nice because the audience isn't looking at the same thing every year.

Do you ever get tired of Nutcracker? Not so far. Sometimes I get tired of the production that goes into it but once I get into the [Kofman] theater I'm as happy as a clam.

The Alameda Civic Ballet's Nutcracker shows Saturday and Sunday Dec. 18 and 19 at 2 p.m. Tickets available for purchase online.