Dance: Stepping Up to Paradise

Showcase for a "superhuman instrument"

The New York City Ballet is on a red hot streak. It has a dozen young dancers who are crowding the established stars. And it also has Mikhail Baryshnikov, ballet's reigning superstar. Last week the company gave the world premiere of a showcase for some of the explosive talent: Jerome Robbins' The Four Seasons, set to snippets of Verdi ballet music, most of it from I Vespri Siciliani. There is nothing very deep here, but the work is a flashy hit. Ballet, like opera, is a virtuoso art. There are a lot of high Cs for the...

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