MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—Others dance steps. She dances a symphony.

She has finesse, poise and a keen sense of timing. While others are just going through motions, she gives us her sense of true theater too, with personality to match.

This is Erin Yarborough-Powell, who draws your gaze even when tucked away in an ensemble piece. Performing professionally for so many years she’d rarely reveal (best guess: Starting before the Millennium), she is the stunning interpreter at the Smuin Contemporary Ballet, a staple feature in the “Christmas Ballet” now playing around the bay with 16 dancers every night, rotating its personnel during the December run.

The “Christmas Ballet” itself has been around since 1995. Since the death of founder-choreographer Michael Smuin in 2007, its Classical Christmas portion has sagged noticeably. But, as seen Dec. 6, its glitzy, modern Cool Christmas with time-tested pop music remains a very entertaining drawing card, with fun, games and variety spread through some 16 numbers. Like Santa’s kids, this perennial can be both naughty and nice—flashy and a bit naughty in Cool, plus nice in Classical.

With Smuin, dance could be fun, and funny too. Unforgettable is the sexy Eartha Kitt song “Santa Baby,” with a femme fatale (Terez Dean Orr) providing many a naughty wink, giggle and wiggle, trailing a boa longer than your driveway. The no-less-outrageous “Christmas Island”  recalls the movie “Jaws,” featuring a surfer on rolling waves having to rescue a bathing beauty when the fin of a mammoth shark sets off in hot pursuit.

The “Drummer Boy” solo had showman Robert Kretz twirling the drumsticks like a pro, nimble and habile while sticking to the beat. Smuin’s veteran tap guy, Shannon Hurlburt, not only danced his specialty “Bells of Dublin” but also choreographed the tap duo for Maggie Carey and Valerie Harmon.

Among the international selections, “Riu. Riu Chiu” featured the very supple soloist Ian Buchanan, leading to the ensemble’s step dances in “Gloucestershire Wassail.” There are  some misfires too, via a devotional  “Ave Maria” in which the glitzy ballerina looks as though she was emerging from big buys at Tiffany’s Xmas counter.

Other performers worth watching were Mengjun Chen, Ben Needham-Wood and Erica Felsch. Among  the most effective pieces  was a stunning set having nothing at all to do with Christmas: the Jewish culture with klezmer music in both “Candle Blessing” and “Sleep Well,” where in midstream you wanted to reach for your yarmulke and kick up your heels.

The original Smuin choreography has been broadened by the 2018 creativity of Rex Wheeler, Erica Felsch (both unveiling premieres) and others. To date, there are 94 possible segments of the “Christmas Ballet,” of which 30-plus pieces are shown in the lively variety spectacle by this chamber company. As of this fall, the work has been presented 550 times, mostly in Bay Area cities.

Casts rotate nightly.

Smuin Contemporary Ballet (Christmas program), at home in San Francisco through Dec. 24. For info: (415) 214-8198 or go online.

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