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This is a dazzling display of choreographic and dancing virtuosity, presenting nearly 20 soloists and an excellent precise corps in traditional and modern ballet highlights. The American Ballet Theatre is a thoroughly international company, "bringing together," as Natalia Makarova says in an introduction, "the best dancers and choreographers from all over the world." That ambitious claim is fully justified by brilliant performances, ranging from Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake to the world premiere of Nacho Duato's postmodern Remanso for three rather athletic male dancers, Anthony Tudor's exquisite The Leaves Are Fading, the sentimental Cruel World of James Kudelka, and the dreamlike Balcony Scene from Sir Kenneth MacMillan's (and Prokofiev's) Romeo and Juliet. Most of the numbers are pas de deux; women are spotlighted (notably Susan Jaffe, Amanda McKerrow, and Julie Kent), but men get in some impressive steps besides doing the heavy lifting. --Joe McLellan
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