Photo of Isabella Boylston by Rosalie O'Connor.

A man in a dog costume. Another man comically gliding by on a bike. The sound of an audience laughing and cheering. You might think I was at the circus. But I wasn’t.  This was American Ballet Theater’s “The Bright Stream,” complete with cross-dressing dancers and much, much more.

This comic ballet running through June 15 at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center is quite different from a traditional ballet like “Swan Lake” in its bold and humorous storytelling. It takes place in Northern Russia, specifically, during a harvest festival on a Soviet farm in the 1930’s. An arrival of artists and dancers stir up lighthearted drama, reunion of friendships, and lots of celebrations. In the manner of a Shakespeare comedy, the characters switch identities to reveal infidelity in marriages and simply to have fun.

It is different than what people usually think of as a ballet. It is surprisingly funny, and audience was laughing out loud and cheering, mainly due to the dancer’s exaggerated movements and the absurdity of the storyline.

In one particularly funny scene, two dancers perform a dance badly, on purpose, in such a way that it actually requires tremendous skill to make it funny. Another amusing moment is when a man dressed in an oversized furry dog suit (to mock a friend) stands up and starts to prance along with all the other dancers.

There is a variety of movement, sometimes modern – almost like hip-hop – in the group numbers, but the solos and duets feature more traditional ballet, with twirling leaps and powerful lifts.

The characters wear a variety of clothing within a basic color scheme of brown, pink, and tan, giving the ballet a realistic feel. Although most women wear pointe shoes, everything else from costume designer Elena Markovskaya looks like regular clothing one might find on a farm: overalls instead of tights for men, cloth skirts instead of tutus for women, and boots, aprons, and bonnets.

One of the most enjoyable and unusual aspects of “The Bright Stream” is that for much of the second act, two of the male dancers dress and dance as women – including going on pointe – and two women dance the role of the men. Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky keeps the comic level high (having the male dancers occasionally hobble over to massage their aching feet) while also making the technical level of the dancing impressive. It is thrilling to see one of the women perform the same athletic leaps in a solo dance that a male dancer had performed in the first act.  (See the photo above.  Amazing!)

In one of the final moments  of the evening, the dancers piled into the middle of the stage, waving and grinning at the audience, as though acknowledging and thanking us for being part of the fun. Ultimately, people who don’t like ballet (or don’t think they do) could enjoy this for its exuberance, but the level of dancing skill is also so impressive that even those who attend ballet regularly or prefer to watch traditional dancing would find an enriching and surprising evening of entertainment in “The Bright Stream.”