The Bolshoi Ballet was back in resplendent classical form at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall Friday night with a feast of dancing to satiate appetites unsatisfied by the "modern" new "Romeo and Juliet" that opened the company's five-day Cal Performances engagement.

"Raymonda" may not carry the iconic status of "Swan Lake" and "The Sleeping Beauty" among the 19th century canon created by Marius Petipa, the Frenchman who built Russian ballet into an artistic empire. The thin story lacks poeticism: The beautiful Raymonda bids her betrothed crusading knight farewell, is nearly abducted by a villainous foreigner and weds triumphantly when her fiance returns just in time to slay the pesky lecher.

But the Glazunov score, warmly performed by the Bolshoi Orchestra, is so lush and alluring that George Balanchine carved no fewer than three plotless ballets from it. And the nonstop dances form such a parade of lyricism, virtuosity and vigor that it's easy to see why American Ballet Theatre chose to remount "Raymonda" earlier this year.

The choreography by Petipa survives in segments. The Bolshoi's "Raymonda" folds in bits by Alexander Gorsky and former leader Yuri Grigorovich, yet feels surprisingly whole. Every act tests the ballerina with toe-twisting pointe work, devilish balances and silently strong adagio.

Anna Antonicheva met the challenge with gorgeous tapered feet, regal arms and a broad brow that furrowed oh-so-aristocratically in moments of distress. Her partner, Sergey Filin, danced nobly in a lame-duck role. Partly because of the story line, partly because of Dmitry Belogolovtsev's charisma as Raymonda's would-be kidnapper, you almost wished she'd chuck expectations and take off with the sensual outsider.

The corps shone in the first-act dream sequence, a vision of clear, well turned-out legs and supple backs just a bit crowded by Zellerbach's shallow stage.

Solo opportunities were ripe. Maria Alexandrova showed off her powerful jump as one of Raymonda's friends, while Nelli Kobakhidze turned heads with her sharp timing in the dream scene's first variation.

The second act whipped up such momentum with its somewhat crude Saracen and Spanish dances that the final act felt anti-climatic.

And yet, what an essay in the integration of character details with classical form. Two sets of Hungarians skip like fiends, and then their robust stamping feet, shaking heads and crossed arms marry with refined grandeur in the ballerina's Grand Pas.

American dancers struggle to achieve this spirited sense of rhythm. The Bolshoi dancers had it in their bones.