Hartford Ballet.

In his first season as artistic director of Hartford Ballet, Kirk Peterson has demonstrated uncommon savvy and skill. His lyrical choreography achieves a rare balance between tradition and innovation. His selection of repertoire, casting, and programming is astute, and offer the company's young dancers a priceless opportunity to grow.

All of this was evident during the final performances of Hartford's 1993-94 season, when the company presented Peterson's The Eyes That Gently Touch and Valse Triste, Michel Fokine's Spectre de la Rose, Antony Tudor's Jardin aux Lilas (here titled Lilac Garden), and Michael Smuin's Hearts.

Eyes, set to the Philip Glass score entitled Mad Rush, drew an unexpected romanticism from Glass's music with its stream of poetic images. The ballet featured three pas de deux separated by allegro ensembles and culminated with all six dancers caught in a series of poses, like brief raptures, before they eased into the final, harmonious grouping. The loveliest of the duets came first, with Nicole Cook and Alexandre Iziliaev performing swooning backbends and beautiful symmetrical battements. Peterson's inventive and musical handling of a demanding range of ballet steps, and the work's careful structure, made the piece a delight to watch. The choreographer's Valse Triste, immediately following, offered a subtle narrative in which a woman's diffidence led to the end of a passionate affair.

The middle portion of the program paired two works in which a flower symbolizes a young woman's feelings about love. In Spectre the heroine's dewy hopefulness comes to life in the form of a mysterious Rose; while in Jardin a gift of lilacs denotes the transience of the protagonist's joy. Seeing these two works back to back--watching youth's tender passions awakened and then cruelly thwarted--proved devastating. This truly inspired programming left me feeling that these works should always be performed together. Both ballets were staged and coached by experts (Maria Youskevitch and lgor Youskevitch for Spectre and Sallie Wilson for Jardin) whose applied experience resulted in several phenomenal performances. Tatiana Jouravel appeared delicately but thoroughly intoxicated as the young girl in Spectre, making each gesture natural and stylish. In Jardin, Cook brought the right combination of supressed hysteria and resignation to the leading role of Caroline, while Iziliaev, as her lover, remained ardent in defeat. Jeanette Hanley flaunted a cynical sensuality as an Episode in the not-so-distant past of the man whom Caroline must marry.

Hearts, an arch theatrical spectacle with stunning costumes by Willa Kim, completed the program by retelling the story of the classic film Les Enfants du Paradis ("Children of Paradise"). Once again the company's dancers were given an opportunity to nourish their artistry by developing complicated characters in dance, and once again they triumphed. Cook, Hanley, Iziliaev, Benjamin Kubie, and Mikhail Nikitine were the standouts.

During the course of of the year these dancers, and others, have gone from strength to strength. The company has given first-rate performances of masterpieces from the international repertoire as well as exciting premieres. Under Peterson's direction, and given the necessary financial support, Hartford Ballet can be expected to rise to the top rank of our nation's classical ensembles.