With the loss of four key dancers last year, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre found itself in a state of transition as it began its 40th anniversary season last weekend at the Benedum Center with that grande dame of all full-length ballets, "Sleeping Beauty."

This ballet, lovingly encased in David Walker's lavish sets, transports its audience back to a time during the 17th and 18th centuries, when a fairy tale could have been a reality. Coupled with Walker's luscious costumes, the fairies all gossamer and the aristocrats heavily bewigged and draped in luxurious fabrics, the PBT production was ornate as any that the company has offered over the years.

It is also the most difficult. PBT attempted it early on under Patrick Frantz in 1979, but Patricia Wilde shied away from the "Beauty" experience. It wasn't until 2000 that Terrence Orr took on this Olympian task, a ballet epic in scope and carefully concealing an undeniable athleticism where you, to put it simply, you have to stick to your landings.

Orr chose the Walker sets, originally from the Royal Ballet where the company set the gold "Beauty" standard, and purchased and refurbished by the Boston Ballet. During the first two attempts in 2000 and 2005, the PBT dancers strived to meet the technical requirements with mixed results.

Last Friday's opening night began on the same note. The key to the first act is a string of fairy variations, each with hurdles not usually found in other ballets. They require a pinpoint precision in each one, much like the pizzicato of a stringed instrument, in hopping variations en pointe. But there were too many bobbles that night that disrupted any attempts at elegant phrasing. Yet this "Sleeping Beauty" awoke more with each performance, until the bobbles were few and far between by Saturday night. There, for the first time, the PBT dancers began to concentrate on the artistic quality of each solo or group dance, rather than just the steps.

The company fielded three casts, each as distinctive as the ballerinas playing the title part. It's one of the top roles for any ballerina to achieve, an Aurora that requires a feather-light technique on top of steely pointe work and a sublime delicacy of porte bras hovering over fast-paced footwork. But above all, the ballerina must have an unflappable center line that keeps her balanced much of the time on the tips of her toes.

On opening night Friday, Kumiko Tsuji was the perkiest of princesses, not taking it much further than her own personality. Her first entrance was exciting, but she rushed many of her solos in the first act. It wasn't until the second act that she settled down to take advantage of her considerable technique. By the grand wedding pas de deux, Tsuji was more comfortable in commanding the stage.

Like famed ballerina Sylvie Guillem, whom I first saw at Kennedy Center with the Paris Opera Ballet many years ago, she has all the tools to become a great dancer -- remarkable extensions, a high jump and turns like a top. She just needs to develop the connecting links and dramatic nuance. By Saturday's matinee in a supporting role in the Bluebird Pas de Deux with Christopher Budzynski, who was the most accomplished technician of the men, Tsuji was already more self-assured in a brilliant virtuoso performance.

Alexandra Kochis led the Saturday matinee cast with a radiance that inspired. Perhaps her confidence was due to the attentive Kwang-Suk Choi, who conjured Prince Desiree as a dreamer with spot-on pirouettes to boot. Still, Kochis maintained a certain child-like wonder about the pageantry and drama surrounding her while negotiating the numerous hurdles with a grace and intelligence.

Of the trio of ballerinas, Erin Halloran was the only one not making her debut and had performed Aurora in the two previous PBT productions. Although she can sometimes seem aloof while concentrating on her pristine technique, this Aurora provided a breakthrough moment for the veteran dancer. On Saturday night she possessed a real generosity, particularly while flirting with the suitors in the Rose Adagio,

While it was easy to admire Halloran's triple pirouettes and enviable footwork, her Rose Adagio was one of the highlights of PBT's 40 years. Rock solid in her balances on one leg, Halloran barely needed her quartet of suitors in what amounted to a once-in-a lifetime moment.

Forgoing big extensions and jumps in a demonstration that sometimes less is more, Halloran, partnered with a passionate Nurlan Abougaliev as her prince, continued to tease with sublime control and winsome details at her disposal and the audience responded with roars of approval.

While each of the Auroras demonstrated the individuality of the PBT dancers, perhaps the biggest contrast could be seen in connection with Julia Erickson, who played both an ultra-glam version of the evil fairy, Carabosse, arms dripping with venom, and the benevolent Lilac Fairy, all sparkle and sweep as she moved the young lovers to their destiny. Stephen Hadala also played Carabosse (in a nod to the British music hall tradition) with restraint and wicked style.

Conductor Charles Barker expertly held the pages of this fairy tale together with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra. Perhaps inspired by Tchaikovsky's tuneful score, where shades of the "Nutcracker" could be heard (can that be far behind?), the orchestra was in top form, with clarion calls in the brass.

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