The 29th and final annual performance of Ling Hui’s Dance will take place Saturday, May 31, at the Port Townsend High School Auditorium. Entitled “Fairies and Dragons,” it marks the closing of a chapter, both for Ling Hui and for dance in Port Townsend.

Ling Hui has been an essential component of Port Townsend’s vibrant performing arts scene for nearly three decades. While she said she is thinking of her departure as more of a sabbatical than retirement, it still marks an ending.

The eight dance pieces that make up “Fairies and Dragons” showcase both the delicacy and the ferocity of dancers of all ages. The music ranges from Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saëns to Elvis Presley and Birdy. The beginning ballet dancers enthusiastically fill the stage as “Tutu Fairies,” while three of the most advanced dancers in the studio perform an elegant piece on pointe, called “Between Dreams.” The intermediate and advanced contemporary dancers curl and reach across the stage in an expressive piece entitled “Not About Angels.”

To create each dance, Ling Hui watches every group’s special qualities to discover their potential. “I think about how a dancer feels when they are doing the movements, about how to use each dancer’s innate skills to make the movement easier for them to learn.”

Ling Hui’s approach to working with young people has been less about teaching them to be entertainers, focused on amusing audiences, and more about teaching them to be performers, showcasing their talents. “I don’t expect them to become professional dancers,” said Ling Hui, adding that “some of them did, and I’m proud of them.”

She continues, “I want the dance to help them become more powerful, healthy, and disciplined people. In whatever career they choose, some day people will think, ‘this person is so confident, I trust them.’ That is what I wish for them all.”

Ling Hui has been a one-person company, creating the choreography, picking out music and costumes, coordinating the venue, working with lighting and sound professionals, and training parents and other volunteers how to fill various roles to pull off the annual performance. She said her favorite part has been choreographing, as well as selecting (and at times designing) the costumes.

“I’ve been here so long. I am a pretty restless spirit, but for some reason, every year, through many challenges, I decided to continue because of this community,” she said of her decision. “It always takes the whole village to help me pull off the annual performance. I feel so grateful that it’s been hard to move away from this lovely town.”

“Creating is what makes my life come to life,” Ling Hui added.

Said Debbie Bakin, parent of a former student: “Ling Hui’s Dance was an integral part of our family’s life for over ten years, developing our daughter’s love for dance from the smallest tutu until her final senior performance before moving away for college ... The fact that dance has continued to be a core component of our daughter’s life, years after leaving Port Townsend, is a testament to what Ling Hui has given to her students.”

As former student Anabel Moore, who danced with Ling Hui for 15 years, said, “We have a dance family that really loves each other and has a great time working hard together.”

What to know:

“Fairies and Dragons” is on stage at the Port Townsend High School Auditorium for two shows, 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 31. Tickets can be purchased online in advance for $22 or at the door for $25. The student rate is $15.