Ballet Excel Ohio (formerly Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet and a Knight Arts grantee) has been in the dance business for 30-plus years, and in that time has commissioned some top works for young dancers. Thinking pointedly about her audience and the value of beautiful dance, artistic director Mia Klinger always carefully chooses either the storyline she wants turned into dance or her choreographer – sometimes both.

When it comes to a dance maker like Tom Gold (former soloist for the New York City Ballet), she gave Gold general ideas of things she hoped for – dance that would stretch her young dancers beyond their present reach, a dance that was fun, athletic and clearly told, and some other notes, Klinger revealed in a rehearsal interview.

Gold did the rest. He picked out the tale of “Beauty and the Beast,” designed costumes, props and set, and thought out a revamped storyline (ever keeping in mind, as he noted in a taped interview, the impact of the Disney corporation on this particular tale).

Gold has created a total of five new works for the company. He has a flair for dramatizing complex storylines through dance and, what’s really important, a gift for working with and developing younger dancers and playing to their strengths.

For his Beauty/Beast story, Gold made some changes to the classic fairy tale, somewhat following the Disney version. In his telling, Gold focuses on a smug, arrogant Prince being turned into the Beast by a fairy, in order to teach him a lesson about compassion and love. He develops these feelings when he meets the maiden Belle, who wanders into his angry path and is presumably to spend her life in his company after she opts to withstand his wrath in place of her mother.

Scott Hamed-Ramos and Noelle Boyages in Ballet Excel Ohio’s “Beauty and the Beast.” Photo by Steve Allen

As in any good romantic tale, the Beast/Prince becomes more well-mannered, content and fun. The couple fall in love and presumably live happily ever after.

Noelle Boyages as Belle/Beauty in Ballet Excel Ohio’s “Beauty and the Beast.” Photo by Steve Allen

Tension in dance terms comes from scenes of the Beast interacting with villagers. Gold has young women of the village performing a maypole dance, a scene that sets up the notion of youth and love.

The Beast terrorizes the villagers, who, near the end of the ballet, hunt him down until the fairy spares him and changes him back to his princely form.

A significant portion of the ballet is set within the castle. As in the Disney version, household items – statues, candelabras and the like – come to life. Dancers are dressed to look the part, but Gold infuses them with personality. As an example, the Greek-style statues come to life, as Mia Klinger, director of Ballet Excel, said in an interview, like “drama queens.” Haughty, condescending, pompous, they attempt to strut their stuff to out-do Belle (who, of course, surpasses them as wins the heart of the Prince).

Dancing candelebras in Ballet Excel Ohio’s “Beauty and the Beast.” Photo by Steve Allen

Also on the dance bill with “Beauty and the Beast” will be Tom Smith’s “Cliques.” Smith, a professor of dance at The University of Akron, worked with the older dancers of BEO to set his work about gangs of young women who bond together strongly and resist any integration with a rival clique.

Smith’s piece is rife with moves of aggressiveness, force and vigorousness. Done in modern dance terms (as opposed to the classical technique of the other work on the bill), the language of Smith’s dance is perfect for confrontation.

Ballet Excel Ohio will perform Tom Gold’s “Beauty and the Beast” and Tom Smith’s “Cliques” at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 15, and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 16, at the Akron Civic Theatre, 182 S. Main St., Akron; 330-253-2488; www.akroncivic.com. Tickets range in price from $10-$25.