St. Paul Ballet is an artist-led company, which means each of the dancers also works in administration — as marketers, fundraisers, art education specialists and the like.

Last weekend's spring program at Cowles Center also included a social worker, a recent high school graduate, and a chiropractor, who were joined by a trio of apprentices, three guest artists and students from the company's school. In short, the group is committed, they are versatile, and they boast a lot of very strong dancers.

This was evident from the first work, "Mein Weg" ("My Way" in German), a 2011 piece choreographed by the Hong Kong Ballet's Joseph Morrissey. One of the few pieces danced en pointe, it featured Jarod Boltjes, Nicole Brown, Jacqueline McDaniel, Anna Roehr and Preston Stockert.

Big on extensions and lightning-like demonstrations of technique, the piece featured expressionless solos and duets — so modern — and sections of precision gestural play.

"Blind Contour" took what was conceived of as a walk-through theater installation and presented it as a work for seven dancers. The piece began, and ended, with performers in silhouette behind two hanging sheets — though this trick of lighting design didn't feature prominently in the rest of the work.

The dancers were strong, and formed great shapes as members of shifting quartets and duos, but the overall feeling of guest choreographer Katie Elliott's work was muddy — pretty but pointless.

Artistic Director Zoe Emilie Henrot offered "Gray Matter," using a sound score that she created using the dancers' voices and the words of Rene Descartes. The six sections might not have definitively answered the question "Does the mind control the body, or does the body control the mind?" but the ease with which the dancers addressed the quest, and each other, was impressive.

Special recognition should go to the duet of Brown and Elander Rosser, and the final trio of Brittany Adams, Boltjes and Stockert. But the choreography that was so lovely in these smaller groups grew distracted when the group increased to seven, or more.

"Capriccio" was a shoes-on and syncopated variation on a Spanish-themed dance for lithe McDaniel and a cast of four; "Nadine" was a lovely group study featuring an ensemble that included students, all gloriously washed in flowing gold dresses designed by Christina Onusko.

The show closed with "Shifts," a lighthearted collaboration between a cellist (Adam Stiber), 13 dancers, and as many folding chairs. Bach's Cello Suites motivated the movers who mimicked Stiber's drawing of the bow, before exploding the movement into a very satisfying romp.

Amy Lamphere is a Minneapolis writer.