BALLET: `A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM' ENCHANTS 1,160 (REVIEW)

From the opening in a misty forest glen to the magical finale in which the Faries, Sprites and Pixies disappear beneath King Oberon's billowing cape, the Saint Louis Ballet's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" delighted an audience of 1,160 Friday night at the Show Me Center.

A festively-costumed company of 41 dancers, including many wee ones, pranced about the stage to Felix Mendelssohn's lush music. Most of the dancers were skilled and under control, and had a sparkle that helped the ballet create an enchanted world.

Much in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" depends on characters falling asleep and being enchanted to fall in love with the wrong person. Often ballet movements are symbolic, but co-artistic directors Antoni Zalewski and Ludmila Dokoudovsky have made this a work of real pantomime. It's all the most enjoyable for that.

Guest artist Gen Horiuchi invested Puck with a robust athleticism and actorly playfulness that made each appearance on stage an anticipated event. And Lisa Guidi as Titania seemed to float across the stage. Guidi isn't the stereotypically skeletal prima ballerina, simply the princessly kind and an accomplished dancer.

Her love-struck pas de deux with Mikhail Matveyev as the ass-headed Bottom was arresting, choreographer Zalewski playing the scene not for humor but for tenderness.

The interplay between Bottom's acting troupe of Quince (Michael Monsey), Snug (Sigmund Mulnick) and Flute (Gary Radin) lent clever humor to the ballet.

If there is a weakness to this production it is a bit of unsureness on the part of a few of the male principals.

One of the best qualities of dance is its infectiousness. During the two intermissions, small groups of girls gathered to perform pirouettes and other ballerina-ish maneuvers. Some adults were even seen having fun.