Dancescape: Baryshnikov.

Mikhail Baryshnikov showed his new, muted colors in the charming and witty Mr. XYZ, created for him by Eliot Feld as part of his Ballet Tech season in March. In a collection of wistful and wily scenes, Baryshnikov dances not alone but with a cane, a chair-on-wheels, and a mannequin-traces of Fred Astaire's impassioned duet with a coat rack. Part old vaudevillian, part rural storyteller, Mr. XYZ glides past two young dancers who appear and disappear: Clearly, he would rather dance with his memories. Embedded in those memories are moments that only classical ballet-goers will recognize: strumming a lute as in Apollo, dropping lilies as though on Giselle's grave, and dragging himself with the cane, like the Prodigal Son returning home. Mr. XYZ is part of the repertoire of Baryshnikov's touring solo program (see September's Fall Preview).