"Let's go see the Atlanta Ballet's Indigo Girls Project," my daughter said. "You'll like the dancing and I'll like the music."

So in the interest of mother-daughter bonding, I left the garden March 27, washed off the top three layers of red clay and went to the Fabulous Fox sans husband, son-in-law and grandson.

She was half-right: We both loved the dancing and the music.

The program opened with Balanchine's exemplary neoclassical ballet, "Allegro Brillante," featuring Emily Cook and Gainesville Ballet graduate Jonah Hooper.

Four more couples from the ensemble joined them in this charming work choreographed in intricate and symmetrical patterns of quincunxial rotation.

The dancers were poised and gracefully secure. Rose-colored costumes and pretty lighting emphasized the effect.

Yet without being in any way disappointing, the performance was ordinary. Lovely but mundane. Ho-hum, more classical ballet.

"Caught" was its antithesis. Strenuous, demanding, almost unbelievable challenging, it left the audience gasping before bursting into applause.

Wei Dongsheng performed amazing aerial acrobatics on a blacked-out stage lit only by a strobe synched with Robert Fripp's music. Each brilliant flash caught him high in the air: Stretched, sprawled, twisted like a pretzel.

In one sequence he appeared to walk across the stage a foot above the floor; in another, he repeatedly crossed his legs at a height greater than his own head. It was an explosive ending to the first half.

"How could he do that?" a child behind me demanded afterward.

His sibling had the solution: "It wasn't a real guy, Mom. It was a robot."

Then came the event most of the audience had come for.

The Indigo Girls Project combined a live concert with eight modern dance numbers choreographed to the songs. "Wow" is the word.

Indigo Girls rocked. Emily Saliers and Amy Ray aren't locked into any one style, but for this show they rocked out with a full backup band. Only the intro, "Least Complicated" and encore were acoustic.

The company danced the intro in uni-gender street clothes which they proceeded to strip off for the second number, "Shed Your Skin." The sparkles and shine thus revealed were a great fit for the lively and sexy number that followed.

"Caramia" was a fantastic modern dance with lots of muscular body work. Two female couples backed by the ensemble women created a feeling of intimacy and connection. The ensemble men were energetic in the lively "Scooter Boys."

Margo Sappington interpreted the lyrics of "Ghost" with two interrelated solos choreographed as a duet for Tara Lee and Christian Clark. Only at the end did the dancers look at each other briefly before separating in a hauntingly beautiful expression of a sad song.

A quartet for two mixed couples, "Touch Me Fall" was another interpretive piece. The music brightens and intensifies just before the final chorus. The dancers did likewise, moving into an impactful contemporary ballet style before returning to modern with the chorus.

The entire ensemble danced tribute to the Girls as the happy-sounding "Closer to Fine" closed the performance.