On Monday night, American Ballet Theatre’s Irina Dvorovenko applied her formidable drive to the difficult task of slowing herself down.

As Odette/Odile in the season debut of “Swan Lake,” Ms. Dvorovenko relinquished her customary aggressive attack and the penchant for obviousness that can make her work seem second-class. In recent years, I’d seen her perform the pas de deux of each act, and her impersonation in the full ballet was a great improvement. Her arms were longer, more finessed, and more elegant. He arabesque was more vibrant and breathing, and even as the temptress Odile she didn’t resort to anything cheap.

Last week was something of a vacation for Ms. Dvorovenko, who was able to forget about pointe shoes and perform – expertly – the acting role of the brothel proprietress Madame in “Manon.” Dancing “Swan Lake,” however, means being back in full classical harness – with a vengeance.

I expected Ms. Dvorovenko to work hard at her opening, and I also expected her performance to look like work. Instead it registered as artful communication. Ms. Dvorovenko is undoubtedly aware that her body is deficient in natural cantilena, and that was probably why her tempos for the White Swan act were relatively brisk. But her movement was neither rushed nor angular.This is essential, because if even a hint of twitching, rubberneck swiveling, or pecking intrudes on the Swan’s supple rip pling, she turns into a different bird altogether and the ballet instantaneously becomes ludicrous, as we’ve seen comics demonstrate in “Swan Lake” parodies.

Ms. Dvorovenko infused her White Swan adagio with an outpouring of emotion that didn’t get sloppy. She is one of the few ballerinas in ABT who can deploy and control a high extension, and she utilized it to give an edge to her silhouette that wasn’t stridently overlaid, as is too often the case now with Slavic ballerinas.

As Prince Siegfried, Maxim Beloserkovsky danced more than respectably, and sometimes beautifully. His stage personality is rather recessive, but it’s better to err on the side of subtlety than on the ostentatious personality projection that is too often confused with star quality.

In ABT’s “Swan Lake,” the role of Siegfried suffers from the pyrotechnics that the artistic company’s director, Kevin McKenzie, has inserted throughout Act I and at the beginning of Act II. These make the prince’s character less, rather than more, delineated. His melancholy solo at the end of Act I, a more or less standard interpolation since the 1960s, was danced plushly by Mr. Beloserkovsky. But it failed to engage us as it should have because it followed too much impersonality.

Indeed,Mr.McKenzie’s “Swan Lake” is a strange one. Class barriers break down in Act I: A peasant girl tries to get next to the Prince, much to the dismay of her peasant swain. The aristocrats get drunk toward the end of Act I, and their dissipation is perhaps meant to suggest a society in decay or in flux – but there isn’t really room in the ballet to accommodate these things, nor does Mr. McKenzie pursue them at great length, so they seem gratuitous.

The sorcerer Von Rothbart is a dual role performed by two different men. One is a hideous monstrosity and the other a suave playboy who is given a solo at the ballroom that is meant to mesmerize the guests as well as the Queen Mother. In the role of Von Rothbart’s seductive self, Marcelo Gomes was insinuating and provocative,but he has danced the role better in the past.

Xiomara Reyes, Yuriko Kajiya, and Herman Cornejo danced graciously in the Act I pas de trois. A nice touch in Mr. McKenzie’s production is to bring the pas de trois dancers back onstage for the Act III ball, in which they dance to music appropriated in Russian productions by that obnoxious jester who became a fixture of Soviet ballet.

The women of ABT’s corps de ballet didn’t shine as Swans as they did as Wilis in “Giselle” two weeks ago; too many sharp elbows jutted out of their ranks on Monday night. This almost didn’t matter, however, given the glittering cast that fronted the swan ensemble: Stella Abrera and Veronika Part as the big swans, and Caity Seither, Marian Butler, Maria Riccetto, and Anne Milewski as the four cygnets. They were well worth watching, as were the princesses in the Black Swan act: Anna Liceica (unaccountably cast in the corps of swans), Zhong-Jing Fang, Ms. Riccetto, and Sarawanee Tanatanit. Each woman made a distinct impression. Frederic Franklin, as the Prince’s tutor, performed in Act I with an energy level that would be impressive in a man half his age.

American Ballet Theatre’s Metropolitan Opera season runs until July 15 (Lincoln Center, 212-362-6000).