The program showcased a quartet of short but significant works: Pino Alosa’s reworked “Paquita,” Jorma Elo’s captivating “Carmen/Illusions,” and two striking duets, Helen Pickett’s “Tsukiyo” and Viktor Plotnikov’s “Rhyme.”

The pieces offered at once a historical survey from classic to modern ballet, as well as a chance to revel in the depth and quality of director Mikko Nissinen’s company, which at least symbolically has captured the energy of moving to its new home at the revitalized Opera House and transferred it to the stage.

Miami City Ballet opened its season Friday night with Allegro Brillante, the same piece that opened the company's first performance in 1986. Allegro is a condensed and fractured primer of George Balanchine's vision of classical ballet, and as such was a kind of linchpin for the company's development -- and in a different way, for this season as well. There are no new ballets slated this year, and so the pleasures of this first program at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts -- and the ones we have to look forward to -- are those already built into the repertory, the style and the dancers that are there.

In a way, this season will be a test for South Florida audiences as much as for MCB. Do audiences like the company as it is? And can the dancers keep finding inspiration in the pieces they know?

This production spoke to the depth and strength that Nashville Ballet has developed during Paul Vasterling's tenure as artistic director. Mastering the ballet classics has eluded this company in the past. Not so this year.

Nowhere was the mastery of classicism more evident than in Christine Rennie's performance as Giselle. She has blossomed from a skilled but diffident dancer into a performer of stellar quality. Her movement and mime captured the essence of Giselle. Her quick steps were precise and light; her balances, rock solid with no wobbles. She connected with the audience the moment she stepped onto the stage.

In Southern California, the arts scene carries the legacy of a Dancing Nun. Santa Ana's Saint Joseph Ballet was launched in 1983-84 by Sister Beth Burns, then a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, and funded by the Catholic group. Now, the dance school dedicated to helping children from poor families choreograph their steps to a high school diploma and a college education has made a pirouette, changing its name to the Wooden Floor.

It may be one of those "huh?" names, says Melanie Rios Glaser, the company's executive and artistic director, who succeeded Burns, now a board member, in 2005. But there's a tradition of that in the world of experimental and cutting-edge art that the school now occupies.

While Beresford's film was also shot in Beijing and Houston, Cao filmed all his scenes in Sydney (with indoor scenes standing in for Houston), alongside dancers from the Australian Ballet and Sydney Dance Company. "I hit the ground running," he says. "There really wasn't time to do anything except concentrate on the job. I spent hours with Graeme Murphy (who choreographed the film) and Janet Vernon working on solo pieces; if I didn't like a step they'd be like, 'OK, what would you prefer?' Everything was about what would look good on Chi."

As the crew swelled to 200 and the rest of the cast began arriving from the US, China and other cities in Australia, Cao began experiencing the odd nervous flutter. "The dancing was one thing," he says. "But suddenly here I was acting with Kyle MacLachlan (playing Li's lawyer) from Desperate Housewives, who'd be giving me a thumbs-up and going 'Hey Chi, good job' .