Ballerina as entrepreneur. (News).

Ballerina Chan Hon Goh, 34, is one of The National Ballet of Canada's most exquisite principal dancers. A gifted classicist, she has also won praise for the strength of her dramatic characterizations. A favorite of Suzanne Farrell, Goh has been a lead dancer in Farrell's acclaimed yearly Balanchine remounts at the Kennedy Center for the last three years. As a guest artist, she has appeared all over the world. For most ballerinas, such a glittering career would be enough of a workload. Goh, however, is also an author, businesswoman, and impresario--and she still finds time to be, by her own admission, an activist role model for immigrant women. In short, Goh represents a new breed of self-marketing ballerina. "Dancers are starting to use their heads," she says. "We have short careers, so it's smart to look for other projects that will guarantee financial security."

Goh and her husband, Chun Che, a prominent Toronto ballet teacher, developed in 1997 a successful line of pointe and slipper shoes for women and men that the pair design and market on their own. Retailing for $70 (CDN), Principal Shoes sells, on average, 10,000 pairs a year. NBC purchased Goh's boots for the men for Artistic Director James Kudelka's Swan Lake. "Our mandate," says Goh, "was to develop a longer-lasting, affordable, hand-made shoe, without New Age material, that provides the maximum balance, support, and weight distribution for a dancer's needs in both training and performance." Wherever Goh performs, she takes her shoes along, and in her off time becomes a salesperson. "Being who I am gets me in the door," she says. "The shoes sell themselves."

Dancing is in Goh's genes. Her parents were both principal dancers with the National Ballet of China. They immigrated to Vancouver when Goh was 7. She studied at her parents' dance school, the famed Goh Ballet Academy, before successfully auditioning for NBC in 1988.

"When I was growing up," she says, "I was the only Chinese kid in a white neighborhood. When I joined the National, I was the only Chinese dancer in a major Canadian company." This immigrant experience led to Goh's writing an autobiography--Beyond the Dance: A Ballerina's Life--directed toward younger readers.

As an impresario, Goh organized the Stars of North American Ballet tour to China in 2002. She also put together the classical dance program for Festival des Arts de St-Sauveur in Quebec for both 2002 and 2003.

"When I finish dancing," says Goh, "I want to be in a position where my input will have impact. Being a teacher or a coach doesn't appeal to me. I want to be able to put my years of dancing and my knowledge of the dance community as a whole to good use." When asked whether she sees herself as an artistic director one day, she replies with a smile: "In order to run a company, you need business skills, and mine are developing very quickly."