Not too long ago, after completing a heavy, emotionally intense piece called Light/The Holocaust and Humanity Project, Ballet Austin's Artistic Director Stephen Mills decided to go another direction. Cult of Color: Call to Color, the project he conceived and then collaborated on with visual artist Trenton Doyle Hancock and musical visionary Graham Reynolds (Golden Arm Trio), is the result.

There are not enough good words to say about Cult. Attempts to capture the performance will only wind up sounding like some over-hyped ad in the Sunday Times Arts section. But Cult really is: Astonishing! Amazing! Fifty Thumbs Up! Visually Stunning! Musically Breathtaking! and The Dance of a Lifetime! In short, it very much deserves a Run-Don’t-Walk-to-See-It recommendation, this urgency compounded by the fact that the show is slated for a very short run.

Mills’ dancers, portraying characters based on paintings by Hancock, are spot-on, not only with their gorgeous dancing, but in inhabiting outrageous costumes and bringing genuine, individual personality to the roles they play. Even those who don’t typically get ballet will get this one.

The story’s plot, relying on classic, sweeping archetypes (temptation, seduction, resistance, submission, good, evil, black & white vs. color, and deception) is simple enough that a child could understand what unfolds. Which is not to say the piece itself is simple—after all, these big themes have puzzled and challenged humans forever. But how lovely to put on a show that is readily accessible to all ages and walks, a truth confirmed by opening night’s audience: the young, the old, those in the middle, folks dressed to the nines, and slackers in sweatpants all clearly deriving equal measures of joy from this riveting presentation.

Basically, the tale goes like this: there are fantastical creatures known as Vegans who live underground, in a colorless world. A priest among them, Sesom, dreams of color and is visited by a multi-colored goddess, Painter, who shows him possibilities he did not know existed. Inspired, he pursues color, recruiting other Vegans to join him. But they meet resistance in Betto, ex-member of the Cult of Color who, with his minions, strikes back at those Vegans who wish to venture beyond their bleak world.

One scene in particular, when the Vegans discover the jubilant possibilities of color via a machine that spews forth countless gem-like eggs and brilliantly hued Color Babies, is a show stopping moment that’s sort of cross between the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Stomp, and the Teletubbies. It’s outrageous and infectious.

Reynolds’ music is flawless—even with your eyes closed you could follow the plot as clearly as you would Peter and the Wolf. But unlike an annoying movie score that melodramatically dictates how you “must” feel, Reynolds’ composition complements and accentuates the emotion sweeping the stage.

Likewise, Hancock’s sets—on the surface simplistic—are highly impressive, particularly the backdrop of the colorful forest, appearing like a massive quilt bringing comfort to the characters who venture there, experiencing the world beyond black and white for the first time.

Absolutely a must-see performance. Closes next weekend at Ballet Austin's AustinVentures StudioTheater