Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Blacksburg's Jordan Elizabeth Long returns to the region to perform.

"The Nutcracker"

• with Long and Pedro Szalay
• Dec. 16 and 17 at the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre at the Roanoke Civic Center.
• Tickets are $14-$31.
• (888) 397-3100; www.tickets.com.

Jordan Elizabeth Long is a long way from home.

The high school junior lives in a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., apartment, some 900 miles from her family in Blacksburg. She does her high school course work via distance learning and the computer. Mornings and evenings, she takes dance lessons at the studio of Cuban-born dance master Magaly Suarez.

This weekend, Jordan returns to dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in Southwest Virginia Ballet's presentation of "The Nutcracker."

"She's very excited about getting to come back and do this," said Elizabeth Newton-Long, Jordan's mother. Jordan's sister, Brennan, 15, will also be in the production.

Jordan gave up an opportunity to dance "The Nutcracker" in Mexico to perform here, her mother said.

The young ballerina -- she turned 17 in August -- shares her Florida apartment with 19-year-old dancer Anais Blake. The two are friends, Jordan said, and help each other out. In addition, Jordan's mother telephones at least once daily, monitors her schoolwork on the computer and visits once a month. (Long's father is Montgomery County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Marc Long.)

"Without cellphones and computers," said her mother, "we wouldn't be able to do this."

This isn't the first time Jordan has been separated from her family by her art. Last year she attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, and over the summer she joined the Suzanne Farrell Ballet of Washington, D.C., on a trip to the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland. Jordan performed in a revival of the George Balanchine-choreographed ballet "Don Quixote."

Of Farrell, the late, great Balanchine's star dancer, Jordan said: "She's one of the most inspiring people I've ever met in my life."

Jordan also studied with Terri Post, founder of the Post School of Ballet in Salem, for five years.

"She's relentless," said Post, who is co-artistic director for the Southwest Virginia Ballet. "And she's fearless. And she's so beautiful to look at on stage."

Post said the teenage dancer, with her long neck, long legs and big eyes, resembles a young Audrey Hepburn. Indeed, Jordan used to have a purse with Hepburn's image on it, Post said, and passers-by would look at her and then the purse, and then do a double take.

Jordan was supposed to dance the role of Clara in "The Nutcracker" a few years ago, Post said, but injured her foot at the last minute and had to bow out. "She's just very dear to me."

As the Sugar Plum Fairy this weekend, Jordan will dance a pas de deux with Pedro Szalay, the ballet's other artistic director. Post suggested her former pupil for the role. After seeing Jordan dance last summer, she said, Szalay quickly agreed. Jordan rehearsed with Szalay over the Thanksgiving weekend, and the pair will get more rehearsal time this week.

Szalay, a long-time dancer with the Richmond Ballet as well as the Latin Ballet of Virginia and the National Ballet of Caracas, Venezuela, said he and Jordan are "learning a lot of things from each other." He praised Jordan's "clean technique. Dancing with her is delightful."

"He's a very good partner," said Jordan of Szalay in return. "He's very nice and very sweet."

So what does the future hold for the 17-year-old ballerina?

She hopes to study in Florida for another year. After graduating from high school, she wants to dance professionally -- college, unfortunately, can rob a young ballerina of some of her best years.

She doesn't have her heart set on one particular company. Dancers who do that can end up unhappy, Jordan said. "You have to just roll with the punches."