To the late great Dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, the Afternoon of a Faun was a lazy, sensual episode in the life of a mythological goat-man; he danced it (to Debussy's famed music) in horns, tail and dappled tights. Manhattan's Choreographer Jerome Robbins, 34, had a different idea. Last week the New York City Ballet presented the Robbins-version faun as a Narcissus rather than a goat-man; the title role went to a shirtless young ballet dancer in practice tights.
What the premiere audience saw first was Dancer Francisco Moncion resting on a practice-room floor. He began...
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