PERSONAL MATTERS.(New York City Ballet)

Like a poker player laying down a royal flush, New York City Ballet, at its spring gala, on May 4th, staged five ballets new to the company. What they added up to, though, was maybe a pair of sixes. Several of the ballets were just brief pas de deux, made by dancers in the company: Benjamin Millepied, Edwaard Liang, and Albert Evans. Millepied's piece, "Double Aria," to music by Daniel Ott, was a taffy pull for two of the company's handsomest, most long-limbed dancers, Maria Kowroski and Ask la Cour. Kowroski doubled over backward; she danced upside down; she spiralled down la Cour's leg like a snake on a stick. None of this seemed to signify much--the piece was basically ...