Director Sarah Cohen, right, leads an ensemble through a dance move.

In a gray, fur-hemmed dress complete with a plush tail, the Big Bad Wolf’s concentration is evident, hands held like claws, eyes directed toward the dance studio mirror.

Alex Nelson appears perfectly balanced, pointing with a ballet shoe as Vanessa Gaspar-Lucas — in her Little Red Riding Hood cape — joins the dance, then sneaks away on hands and knees as plaid-clad werewolves link arms to block lupine intentions.

Their teacher, Sarah Cohen, pokes her pink phone to shut off the music as she and her throng collapse into giggles.

Welcome to the Astoria Conservatory, where young dancers and singers are suiting up as butterflies and werewolves for a pre-Halloween show. Billed as a “funky retelling” of a traditional story, “Grimm Tales: Little Red Riding Hood” will be performed this weekend.

The production has been written and directed by Cohen, the conservatory’s artistic director of dance, who welcomes family audiences to attend and sing along.

InspirationCohen laughs as she describes how she developed an earworm, The Cramps’ 1980 song “I Was a Teenage Werewolf.”

“This one song inspired me. I was looking for something that we could perform every year,” she explained. “I had this tune in my head and it had to come out with this creativity.”

The conservatory, which began with a music emphasis, added a dance and performing arts department last fall. Cohen, who grew up in her parents’ ballet studio in Boston, Massachusetts, and has performed and taught around the United States, serves as artistic director of dance.

She commended her cast’s effort during two months of practice. “They learned one dance after the second rehearsal,” Cohen enthused. “I am having fun, other than my stress.”

‘Friendly’The play features Malachi Cummings as Count De Ville, a modern vampire, who narrates and introduces the others.

Cummings reveals his character is stalling because he doesn’t want to go to the dentist. “The count doesn’t want to have a tooth pulled,” Cohen said.

In a white lab coat and cool sunglasses, Roarke and twin brother Konrad Struve share the role of Dr. Lupin, armed with some sturdy pincers.

The action is peopled by creatures real and imagined, with the four leads doubling up to join the packs. Werewolves are played by Hosanna Cummings, Annie Cummings, Josephine Giles, Oliver Grano, Elliott Strain and Jacob Cohen.

Kayla Merino plays a dragonfly who leads a swarm of butterflies, played by Azucena Gaspar-Lucas, Johanna Heineman, June Davee, Emmylou Bovenizer, Genie Lee Martinez and Clover Bryson. Merino is also a skeleton with Hazel Ydstie, Tanner Bachmann, Reese Bachmann and Adaline Carrera.

Nelson relishes the villain role. “It’s really the ‘bad guy.’ I am interacting with Little Red Riding Hood a lot,” Nelson said, adding reassuringly, “it’s kind of friendly.”

“There’s a lot of chasing going on,” added Giles, an enthusiastic werewolf.

Cohen plans to continue the Grimm theme next year, with “Hansel and Gretel” on the drawing board and classic music humming in her head. “We hope to do it with excerpts from Humperdinck’s opera, so it will definitely have a different feel to it,” she said.

ExpandingThe conservatory is led by its founding director, Lisa Nelson. It began in 2002 as the Astoria Conservatory of Music in the Bond Street apartment where she taught private voice and piano lessons.

The following year, the group began leasing space from the First Presbyterian Church of Astoria and welcomed two more teachers for piano and guitar.

“Twenty-one years later, we are still teaching music and having a wonderful time serving our community,” Nelson said. The name was shortened when the dance and performing arts department was added last year.

Jason Lambert, a member of the original team, remains as the guitar/bass instructor. Vincent Jones-Centeno, Paul Brady and Shelley Loring are all piano instructors, and Loring also teaches the flute. Mattison Solgan serves as the strings instructor.

“Grimm Tales: Little Red Riding Hood”

A production by the Astoria Conservatory

6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Charlene Larsen Center for the Performing Arts, 588 16th St., Astoria

Admission is $10 at the door only, reduced to $5 for those who attend in costume

www.astoriamusic.com