Variety and Virtuosity: American Ballet Theatre Now.

This month's Dance in America telecast, "Variety and Virtuosity: American Ballet Theatre Now," to be shown late in May on many PBS stations, follows the format of a gala performance to showcase ABT's principals.

Throughout this program of excerpts, the dancers comment about what they are to perform. Some speak from their dressing rooms, others in voice-over while they are observed in class or preparing backstage. What they say heightens our understanding of their subsequent performances, as well as their perceptions of ABT, to create a certain intimacy between the viewer and the dancer. Producer Judy Kinberg of WNET /Thirteen in New York City directs the interviews of the dancers and of artistic director Kevin McKenzie, and Thomas Grimm directs the dance portions.

The program opens with Kenneth MacMillan's staging of the Polonaise from the last act of The Sleeping Beauty, obviously chosen as a suitable introduction to former ballerina Natalia Makarova (rather than for its choreographic import). Addressing the audience at Manhattan's City Center, Makarova praises ABT, her "artistic home," for its diverse repertory and hails "this new generation of magnificent virtuoso dancers."

The pas de deux on the program reveal an explicit aspect and style of romantic interaction. Marius Petipa's Black Swan portrays seduction, and his Grand Pas de Deux from Don Quixote a flirtatious competition. Antony Tudor's The Leaves Are Fading depicts a sublime love, MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet a youthful passion, and James Kudelka's Cruel World a mechanistic dispassion.

Before Susan Jaffe dances the Black Swan, she generously praises her partner, Jose Manuel Carreno: "I need a man to be grounded and strong. It makes an enormous difference in my performance." He is indeed an attentive, enraptured Prince to her Odile. Carreno propels himself into exuberant leaps and multiple turns from an inexhaustible plie. Jaffe matches his power and flourish with her own. The filming of this sequence is marred by frequent cuts from dancer to dancer, a problem also evident in the excerpt from Don Quixote. Whenever Petipa separates the male and female dancers, director Grimm destroys the continuity of their dramatic interaction by switching from one to the other. A long shot would have often been preferable.

McKenzie speaks of Tudor as the artistic conscience of ABT, and Amanda McKerrow speaks of his choreography as "food for the soul." In their mellifluous rendering of the pas de deux from The Leaves Are Fading, McKerrow and John Gardner convey its romantic tone without sentimentality. Fully attuned to each other, they capture the lyric fluidity of the choreography while bringing into relief the exquisite shapes that enrich Tudor's design. Will it please viewers to learn that these dancers are husband and wife? I think so.

An interruption and a lively contrast to these pas de deux is Nacho Duato's Remanso, a trio for Vladimir Malakhov, Parrish Maynard, and Keith Roberts. In this clever construction, themes from each dancer's quirky solo are interwoven in canon and opposition to display the dancers' dynamic pyrotechnics with lively unpredictability. Exits and entrances from behind a large upstage wall contribute to a sense of mystery, as does an arm occasionally offering a single red rose. Ukrainian emigre Malakhov describes Duato's unusual vocabulary as "a whole new world."

The pas de deux for Julie Kent and Robert Hill from Kudelka's Cruel World, one of the most compelling sections of the ballet, conveys the tension of a loveless encounter even more forcefully on the small screen, where the avoidance of eye contact and its peculiarly manipulative partnering is more readable. Kent discusses her pleasure in dancing a work created specifically for her, noting, "You can develop the role in your own style."

Introducing the final pas de deux, McKenzie remarks on the tradition of foreign dancers on the ABT roster and adds that this latest wave includes many from Latin countries. Italian ballerina Alessandra Ferri says of her partner, Argentinean Julio Bocca, "Something is linking me and Julio . . . we are free on the stage." In the balcony pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet, their passionate performance is at its best when Grimm pulls the camera back a little to leave space for their intense emotional trajectory.

Spanish-born Angel Corella enthusiastically acknowledges the compatibility of youth and verve in his partnership with Argentinean ballerina Paloma Herrera, and they pull out all the stops in their performance of the Don Quixote. Herrera reluctantly descends from a number of what must be record-setting balances, and she looks pleased as Punch doing so. Corella responds by dancing with a giddy perfection. They appear to be having a splendid time and so, clearly, does the adoring audience.

The gala ends rather anticlimactically with the third movement from Clark Tippet's Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1. Although Ashley Tuttle and Ethan Stiefel have fleeting stellar moments, the work fails to reach a crescendo worthy of its dancers. Another disappointment: In the backstage scenes, Gil Boggs is seen costumed for Mark Morris's Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes. This piece was done at the gala but not included in the telecast. What an omission!

The program concludes with the dancers' voices, obviously answering a question about what it takes to be a dancer: "determination," "freedom," "passion," "be yourself," "a sense of humor," "versatility." In their remarkable variety and virtuosity, ABT's dancers reveal these traits and more.

Rose Anne Thom is a contributing editor of Dance Magazine.