American Repertory Ballet.

Watching American Repertory Ballet from the front rows of the intimate Victoria Theater is like seeing the dancers in the studio: while you miss the sweep of George Balanchine's Serenade, you get the chance to see just how cleanly Molly Daly closes into a tight Fifth Position and just how steadily Mary Barton balances on pointe.

But from further back in the 500-seat house, which is about the size of Manhattan's Joyce Theater, ARB's harmonious ensemble work becomes clear. In The Space Behind Me, choreographed by artistic director Septime Webre to a relentless string quartet by Michael Nyman (he composed the music for the Film The Piano), the stage is awash with a high-speed tribe moving with split-second timing along designer Chenault Spence's dramatic lanes of light.

David Parsons's lighthearted Sleep Study shows off the group at a considerably slower pace. Just a few more minutes of shut-eye is all Douglas Martin wants--so he's left, still snoozing, on the stage apron after the curtain falls. Considering the yeoman service the former Joffrey dancer put in (performing each work, including pas de deux in both Serenade and The Space Behind Me), he deserves a few extra Zs.

ARB closed its thoughtfully chosen program as it had opened it, with a ballet that lets the ensemble run and run, Lila York's Rapture. The dancers' enthusiasm is infectious, making this heavenly vision often more rambunctious than rhapsodic.

American Repertory Ballet, named a "principal affiliate" of the beautifully appointed New Jersey Performing Arts Center, made its debut at the complex the same weekend that President Clinton proposed a deficit-free national budget that reflects a booming economy. So how about one of the opening-night patrons, who were feted with champagne, ponying up the money to enable ARB to replace its taped music with live musicians? These dancers, and this Performing Arts Center, deserve nothing less.