N.Y.C. Ballet's Four Voices

If last week's opening program of the New York City Ballet put the full company on view, the second set of works, performed over the weekend at the Kennedy Center Opera House, was a showcase of individual dancers. Dubbed "Four Voices," it was also a sampler of the creative output of the men who have contributed most to the company's current repertoire: former resident choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins and the two men who previously held that title, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.

The four works -- Wheeldon's "Carousel (A Dance)," Martins's "Zakouski," Balanchine's "Agon" and Robbins's "The Concert" -- weren't in any way similar, but together they were a good fit, sharing a sense of cleverness, musical intelligence and polish. They furthered the company's brand attributes, if you will: the qualities of irreproachably good taste, well-directed physicality, clean technique and, in the brainy "Agon" as in the slapstick "The Concert," great wit.

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