Arresting, amazing, astonishing. Clean lines, full energy and charismatic focus marked each of the performances by eight companies chosen to perform Saturday in the Gala Program of the May 8-10 Regional Dance America Mid-States Festival “Circle of Dance.” All standouts, Salt Creek Ballet of Westmont, Ill., Dance Wisconsin, Kansas Regional Ballet and Ballet Americana of Michigan are particularly memorable because their choreography and performance were beyond the level expected of teen-age dancers. Salt Creek Ballet opened and closed the fast-paced evening of nine numbers beautifully showing the arc from classroom barre and free-flow exercises in “Class Concerto” to classical repertoire in “La Bayadere.” Dance Wisconsin’s modern dance “Storyteller” mesmerized with its attention to mime detail. With “Impressions of Change” Kansas Regional Ballet illuminated Ballet’s subtle changes from its place in opera to a space of its own. Daringly different, Ballet Americana’s “Sunset Gathering” brought a new dimension to modern dance with bare-feet dancers spinning forth from a tight core of circling tap dancers and ultimately interweaving. www.cidedance.org; www.regionaldanceamerica.org.