Miami City Ballet.

It didn't take an alchemist to distill fine essences from The Four Temperaments, the Balanchine concoction of moods and motifs staged for the first time Miami City Ballet in Program II this season. Ardor, solemnity, verve, and wit - all poured forth in strong doses from the performances, each pleasure intoxicating in turn.

A body of dancers that in the past has excelled more in individual display than in ensemble effort bonded together here in groupings small and large to form a critical mass. Whether subdued or agitated - with fluttering hands, rippling torsos, or thrusting legs - the corps women mingled in precise measure with the elemental humors of the principal dancers. Most notable were the flexible Lin Zhen, in "Melancholic," who took the blues into existential malaise, and Sally Ann Isaacks, who, in both the Third Theme and "Choleric," was exacting in her plasticity and dynamically well directed. And what an effervescence of images there was in the finale! Dancers rose in lifts like golden emanations.

That high level of achievement was maintained by the corps in the prgram's other hallmark Balanchine works. In Concerto Barocco the ensemble struck linear poses that were angled with the ease of tall grass in the wind. Square Dance called the dancers to highlight structural interplay and they managed to keep up the excitement in an assortment of treats - from little jumps and quick-stitching footwork to saucy arabesques.

Such delights, however, were barely anticipated during the season's opening program. At the matinee performance I saw, the repertory seemed worn out, especially a Bugaku whose edges could not have split a chrysanthemum petal. The only glitter then was provided by Maribel Modrono, light and precise in Edward Villella's Festival Pas de Deux and Divertissement, with its costumes and set drawn from an Italian rainbow, and the grandstanding ballerinas of Raymonda Variations their ebullience surfacing directly from the Glazunov melodies.

Interestingly, the staging of Raymonda Variations, one of Balanchine's creations in which he looks back to the ballets of his youth, brought up questions of tradition and originality - how received choreography can be reworked, where novel movement fits in, which music in the repertory merits reinterpretation - questions which are also relevant to the works of the company's resident choreographer, Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros. His own Tobiniana and Divertimento Espanol also turned to the past, the former more in spirit, the latter in steps.

These were featured on the third program with Balanchine's Valse Fantaisie II, in which Marjorie Hardwick, accompanied by the superb Christopher Roman, was exceptionally musical with her long-limbed propulsion, and Donizetti Variations, that playground for precocious youngsters, which was well suited to Arnold Quintane's sprightliness and Mabel Modrono's show-off skills.

With tiers of female celebrants in romantic tutus and a sanctified atmosphere created by Randall Henderson's pure lights streaming on the columns and vault designed by Lewis Folden, Tobiniana paid tribute to ballets alabaster icons. This procession of lilies proved elegant despite some languorous passages and blessedly included the intimate fervor of Franklin Gamero and Iliana Lopez, whose adagio luxuriated on the satiny cushions of Dvorak's Serenade for Strings, op. 22.

If Tobiniana seemed in parts a bit anemic, wine-tinctured blood rushed through Divertimento Espanol. The vintage here, of course, dated to Paquita, with its Minkus music and Petipa structures. Once more Maribel Modrono excelled in allegro expressiveness, her arms matching the fanfare of her legs; Marin Boieru, at other times seemingly uncommitted in his partnering, proved a worthy caballero; in his solo he totally served the movement, achieving height and celerity with full charge. A refreshing froth also came from a stream of ballerinas sporting flippant fans and bejeweled red velvet costumes by Haydee Morales. Still, the Hispanic remained ornamental; Mother Russia, enforcing her traditions, clamored like a zealous duenna at the gate (literally - Folden's iron grille set) to moderate Iberian sanguinity. Bright temperaments were displayed nevertheless - not as rare as Balanchine's, but uplifting.