Even for a company known for reinventing itself with each new production, it seemed that Headlong Dance Theater had finally gone off the deep end when its new production was announced. Dancing in a swimming pool? Isn't that activity reserved for those skinny girls in sparkling outfits who compete in synchronized swimming at the Olympics? Nevertheless, that's exactly what the troupe has done for Hotel Pool, a production that's imaginative and daring.

Created by David Brick, Amy Smith and Andrew Simonet as a sort of over-the-rainbow-and-into-the-water experience, Hotel Pool centers around a cranky business traveler (Smith) who wants to do nothing more than check into her room and lie down. One hitch: The card key she receives at the front desk isn't actually for a room, but for the hotel's pool. Furious, she calls the front desk and demands they rectify their mistake. But is it a mistake?

A journey into a magical realm occupied by five aquatic nymphs, Hotel Pool explores the cost of selling your soul to the corporate world. Harried and exhausted, the business traveler is trapped in the ever-spinning wheels of commerce. It's a world in which time is always short and simple joys are nonexistent.

The production, which has considerably more text (written by Pankaj Venugopal, Mark Lord and Smith) than the average dance show, has parallels to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. But where Peter is intent on never growing up, the business traveler's journey is a return to the joyful innocence of youth.

With co-creator Brick serving as the show's lead collaborator, the nymphs (Brick, Kate Watson-Wallace, Lorin Lyle, Olase Freeman and Heather Murphy) are inquisitive, joyous creatures that splash and play like a school of young dolphins at recess, churning up great waves of water, oblivious to time and all other adult concerns.

Much of Hotel Pool is thrilling and utterly delightful. Using the natural buoyancy of the water, the experimental dance is both effortless and enormously fluid. Capable of creating the illusion of walking and dancing on the water (due in part to Matt Saunders' clever set), the dancers twist and turn on top of the pool or glide underwater before lifting and propelling each other through the air. No longer restricted by the rules of gravity, the dancers reach heights unattainable on the ground, and the effect is both freeing and exuberant.

But for all the fun in the water, there are also quiet, even poignant moments.

Initially reluctant to play with the nymphs and then incapable of joining them, the traveler is like a vacationer permanently attached to her cell phone, PDA and laptop. She wants to escape, but remains electronically and psychologically tied to work. Not until she surrenders completely to the freedom of the water can she fully immerse herself in this oasis.

The obstacles to producing a work in a pool are daunting. And while not everything works completely (an adrift sailboat never becomes more than a bobbing craft, Kelly Cobb's costumes are unimpressive and a meeting between the traveler and a mysterious businessman played by Lord is obscure), the show's technical and artistic achievements are remarkable.

Certainly more variation in the underwater lighting would be desirable (though most likely impossible considering the expense and obvious limitations of using a pool intended for the Sheraton's guests), but Jason H. Thompson's above-water lighting is striking and Rick Henderson's sound and original music are tremendously evocative.