By Dean C. Smith,

Correspondent RALEIGH – Carolina Ballet proved all the skeptics wrong Thursday, when it launched its 10th anniversary season in Raleigh Memorial Auditorium with a dazzling performance of Lynne Taylor-Corbett's “Carmina Burana.”

I was among the skeptics on Oct. 25, 1998, as I sat in Section J and watched a new company led by New York City Ballet dancer Robert Weiss take the stage for the first time. Writing then for The Charlotte Observer, I praised the fledgling group for ace performances of classic works by George Balanchine but fretted in print about whether it would find enough support in a city Raleigh's size to survive.

Exactly nine years later to the day, I sat in Section J again and marveled at how Weiss' company has both survived and thrived here.

It is impossible to overstate the challenge of sustaining a nonprofit arts group of this size, working at this level: to field a troupe of classically trained dancers brought to the Triangle from around the globe; to create and premiere 60 new works, including Weiss' televised “Romeo and Juliet”; to engage internationally known choreographers such as Tony-nominated Taylor-Corbett; to assemble a repertoire of works by Balanchine staged by his own proteges; to maintain a commitment to live music that includes full orchestra at times; and, this year, to extend the company's reach to Wilmington with a summer residency of performances and educational programs. We see beautiful dance onstage, but there must be a lot of brains and money at work behind the scenes.

Bringing back “Carmina” for a third run of performances was a smart move – who can resist Carl Orff's mesmerizing music? This thoroughly conceived and fully realized work is Taylor-Corbett at perhaps her best, a satisfying balance of visual glitz and flesh-and-blood pathos.

Declining the music's invitation to set the work in some medieval fantasyland, Taylor-Corbett has used its pulsing rhythms and lilting melodies to create a modern parable of greed, lust and loss set in the high-stakes world of Wall Street. The dance of the office chairs is a funny touch, but there's a dark side at work here as well.

While “Carmina” is a crowd-pleaser, it was obvious Thursday that the dancers love it, too. Marcelo Martinez grabbed the audience by the lapel with his menacing, in-your-face turn as the Man of Darkness. Melissa Podcasy tugged our hearts with a complex heroine torn between a better life and true love. Attila Bongar lunged from mistake to mistake until he ended up – in a stunning visual effect – a puppet on a string.

The whole company danced with energy and commitment, including Jan Burkhard as the daughter lured down the wrong path, Erica Sabatini as her innocent friend, Zalman Raffael and Richard Krusch as eager suitors, Caitlin Mundth as a pathetic Lost Soul, Hong Yang as a sexy temptress and Timour Bourtasenkov as the lover who must wait his turn. Mercedes Ruiz, as the little girl, was just plain adorable.

All that visual drama was supercharged by the live musical performance of Orff's famous score by more than 100 musicians, including the N.C. Master Chorale, led by Alfred E. Sturgis. Rather than a full orchestra, the band was anchored by two fearless pianists, Susan Lohr and Nancy Whelan, along with a battery of percussion. Soprano Lora Fabio and baritone David Mellnik were effective soloists.

The evening opened with a pretty little flower of a piece by Weiss, “Adagio,” danced touchingly by Margaret Severin-Hansen and Pablo Javier Perez. The bonus was Tetyana Ryabchikova in the pit, playing her own arrangement for solo piano of orchestral music by Tomaso Albinoni.

The evening's first half also included Weiss' Balanchine-inspired full-company showcase “Petit Ballet Romantique.” Perhaps because it was opening night, there was a going-through-the-motions quality to stretches of Thursday's performance that didn't match the energy of lead couple Lilyan Vigo and Alain Molina.