World's finest in ballet. (Art Watch).

Living in a city often starved for world-class fine performing arts, Mexico City residents are in for a treat when some of the world's finest ballet dancers light up the Auditorio Nacional marquee for three days in mid-March.

Arguably the world's top young ballerina, the Kirov Ballet's prized Svetlana Zakharova will be welding her foot to the stage in an attempt to further an international reputation that is gaining steam with each pirouette piquee. Her appearance in New York last summer dominated talk at intermission and press coverage of the much-celebrated Lincoln Center Festival. Her appearance in Mexico is not something that any art lover--let alone a balletomane (what the more pretentious aficionados call themselves)--can miss and expect to maintain a clear conscience.

The 23-year-old Ukranian will be in star-studded company, with Argentine sensation Paloma Herrera matching her distaff moves, and strapping Cuban Carlos Acosta undoubtedly astounding the audience with his sheer athieticism and masculine power. Both the exceptionally beautiful Herrera, who is perhaps best recognized by the masses for the widely circulated poster of her striking a petite attitude in a Manhattan subway car--and Acosta hail from the Metropolitan Opera-based American Ballec Theatre and dance the principal roles in the exclusive outfit.

Exceptional dancers from the world's major ballet companies will be joining them, specifically Elvira Tarasova, Igor Zelensky and Andrei Batalov (Mariinski Theater's Kirov Ballet of St. Petersburg); Sergei Film and Inna Petrova (Bolshoi Ballet); Alina Cojocaru and Johann Koborg (The Royal Ballet of London); and Vladimir Malakhov (Vienna State Opera).

Putting together a cast of this magnitude is an impressive feat, and the organizers of the event should be commended for their efforts. Handling the world's finest dancers--and no rational argument can be made that these are not the best our time has to offer--will be celebrated Kirov Ballet artistic director Makhar Vaziev. Vaziev, a former distinguished Kirov dancer, will be bringing with him one of his company's top directors in Gustavo Plis-Sterenberg. The Argentine native orchestrates.

We could continue here to list the international accolades bestowed upon the visiting troupe, but space limitations do exist in this print medium. On stage, however, lines will be established and lines will be broken--all in the name of an imperial art form that is too often associated with tutus and stuffy high society. At its purest, ballet offers the audience a glimpse of beauty for beauty's sake, as dancers follow minutely crafted steps more often designed for aesthetic effect rather than the advancement of a storyline.

What will this landmark event hold? The program has not been finalized, but some fantastic visions are undoubtedly swimming about the mind of Vaziev, the man who has added such challenging productions as George Balanchine's "Jewels," Kenneth MacMillan's "Manon" and assorted works by Alexei Ratmansky and Sergei Vikharev to the Kirov repertoire.

One word of warning: if the strikingly fit Zakharova dances Balanchine's "Diamonds"--set to the music of Petr Tchaikovski--get ready for another earthquake in the Valley of Mexico, because the Auditorio Nacional is going to be rocking.