DANCE

St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre

Never underestimate the wallop of a ghost story. When the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre presented "Giselle" Wednesday in a one-shot appearance at Montgomery College, the first act showcased a pleasant but not exhilarating rustic world, full of peasants and nobles frolicking amid autumnal colors. For the spine-tingling moments, you had to wait for Act 2, and the blue-lit, fog-enshrouded realm of the Wilis.

Credit for heightening the emotional register (and for transcending the tinny-sounding music) goes largely to Anna Borodulina, who danced the title role. In Act 1, Borodulina's Giselle was such a girlish, impulsive, bashful little thing, you'd have sworn she'd just returned from the orthodontist's office. She often carried her neck at a gawky angle (because she was staring shyly at the ground), and her mad scene brimmed with adolescent desperation. So the effect was all the spookier when she later emerged as a phantom, her vapory dancing a testament to otherworldliness, with occasional wilder movements -- such as her soubresauts -- suggesting demonic possession.

Yury Mirov supplied a rather bland Albert (as Giselle's aristocratic suitor is called here), but his to-the-floor crumplings and impassioned leaps in Act 2 intensified the dramatic tension. Portraying Albert's lowborn rival, Gans, Egor Ivanov stomped around, earthy and cantankerous -- a polar opposite, you might say, to Yliya Ilnyina's gliding, inhuman Mirta, queen of the Wilis. As for Mirta's band of specters, they were effectively eerie and ruthless. By the time the curtain fell, it seemed clear that Albert would, sooner or later, have to join a support group for Wili survivors.

-- Celia Wren

Washington Ballet Studio Company

Classic rock stations that blanket the airwaves with Van Morrison's "Moondance" might take a tip from the Washington Ballet: The song should be banned unless it accompanies the sly choreography of Jared Nelson and Septime Webre's "Moon/Dance Suite." It will be heard in that context through tomorrow as part of the Washington Ballet Studio Company's disarming production "Peter and the Wolf . . . and Other Works" at the England Studio Theater.

In "Moon/Dance Suite" eight dancers flirt, partner and spar -- sometimes in adolescent-style dalliances (come-hither looks around a ladder), sometimes in childish showdowns (a graceful six-person quarrel over chairs). The Studio Company performers bring wit and zest to Nelson and Webre's creation, which uses music by Debussy and Schumann, as well as Van Morrison.

Also on the bill Thursday night was a pas de deux from "Copp¿lia," performed by Mako Nagasaki and Tyler Savoie, who mustered (in sugary white costumes) considerable courtliness and serenity. Aurora Dickie and Norton Fantinel brought more excitement to the "Diane and Acteon" pas de deux: Dickie pranced about elegantly, clutching a hunter's bow, and Fantinel -- the production's most expressive performer that evening (he's a Washington School of Ballet student) -- executed some terrific angled in-air spins.

Rounding out the eclectic, family-friendly program (which runs a shade over an hour) is "Peter and the Wolf," featuring Brian Reeder's choreography and Prokofiev's score. Wearing animal costumes or Slavic get-up, the dancers cavort around panels painted with orchestral instruments and rustic scenery. The gray wolf might scare very young children, but parents can assure the timorous that the story ends happily -- even for the imprudent duck.

-- Celia Wren