Foreign Invasion At Lincoln Center

Just as professional sports has "The Superstars" and Hollywood has The People's Choice Awards, ballet has its own cheesy night of odd celebrity competition. It's called "Stars of the 21st Century," and it hits town more or less once a year, attracting a strange crowd of late-arriving socialites in ball gowns and tuxes and impecunious balletomanes in cheap attire.

The latest edition was Monday at the New York State Theatre, and it featured stars from the Bolshoi, the Kirov, the Munich Ballet, ABT and City Ballet-along with a pair of leading Argentinean tango dancers and contemporary black dance star Desmond Richardson. It was a little like a dinner of sirloin from the pampas, borscht and Rhine wine topped with chitlins.

Yet, were such a meal cooked by the world's best chefs, it would still delight. And this one did. But as a direct competition of the world's best dancers, the evenings roll loaded dice; the dancers given the heaviest dramatic pieces and best music will always stand out. Doubtless, this was at least part of the reason why Munich Ballet principals Lucia Lacarra and Cyril Pierre, who are a married couple off-stage, were the highlight. Given the balcony scene of Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet", they moved and awed all. Pierre is a fine and understated actor and a nearly ideal male partner: tall, strapping and exceptionally strong, virile, generous and possessed of uncommonly smooth steps for such a big man. And his wife is a great prima ballerina.

With other great performances from the Paris Opera Ballet's gifted Mathilde Froustey, the facile-leaps and turns of the Bolshoi's Sergei Filin and Desmond Richardson's flexible style (to name but a few), it was an enchanting night.