The Kennedy Center's Prelude Festival is one of the best ideas yet from Michael Kaiser, the center's president, for introducing Washington audiences to Washington art. At the Terrace Theater Thursday, the Washington Ballet got into the spirit of things by presenting a sampler program with a little something for everyone: a neoclassical Balanchine ballet, an excerpt from a work by Choo-San Goh, the company's late resident choreographer, and two pop dances from Nacho Duato and Trey McIntyre, two of today's hot choreographers.

The dancers looked terrific, as they always do in McIntyre's "Blue Until June," created for the company nearly two years ago. One couldn't ask more of them. They shake and twist and shimmy and slump with enormous confidence and energy to a tape of Etta James singing the blues. Much of the movement is inventive, especially a duet for two men who've just discovered each other, and a slinky, staggering solo for a man who's had at least "One for the Road," danced by Jason Hartley with a deft, insouciant brilliance.