FAIRY KISS (FROM WEEKEND IN N.Y.)

This article originally appeared in the Culture section of Bloomberg News on June 9, 2006.

June 9 (Bloomberg) — The New York City Ballet’s Sunday matinee at the New York State Theater offers a small Balanchine gem featuring one of the company’s most precocious stars-in-the-making.

George Balanchine’s 1972 Divertimento from “Le Baiser de la Fee” is driven by the choreographer’s mystical streak. Created in 1972 to a Stravinsky score, it’s an abstract ballet haunted by the suggestion that love and loss are engineered by the workings of Fate.

In the unforgettable closing passage of the dance, a man on an undefined quest and the woman he has found to love are gently but implacably parted in a moving maze formed by their friends.

Casting for the ballet features principal dancer Megan Fairchild, a petite 21-year-old with an air of childlike sweetness. She is also the possessor of a formidable technique and — most telling — the ability to grasp the essence of a role that lies beyond its steps.

© 2006 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.