THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

New York City Ballet at New York State Theater, Lincoln Center; (212) 870-5570. Season runs through Sunday.

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ON the final lap of the first part of its centenary celebration of the artistic legacy of George Balanchine, the New York City Ballet is devoting the last two weeks of its Lincoln Center season to performances of the Tchaikovsky classic “The Sleeping Beauty.”

The ballet, a constant inspiration to the young Balanchine during his early days in St. Petersburg, has been staged by Peter Martins in a version close to the original 1890 choreography by Marius Petipa.

The three intermissions of the original have been reduced to one, and there have been a few, very few in fact, musical cuts.

City Ballet, which has not presented “The Sleeping Beauty” for four years, opened this New York State Theater run with a cast led by Jenifer Ringer and Philip Neal as Aurora and the Prince who wakes her from her long sleep.

The great thing about this somewhat Freudian fairytale is the magnificent Tchaikovsky score unfurling majestically through the evening, and Petipa’s inspired choreography, making it probably the very peak of 19th-century ballet.

City Ballet dance it very well, although their customary speed – so essential for Balanchine – could be moderated for the more leisurely eloquence this ballet demands. Here, speed too much resembles haste.

The best performances came from Ringer as a charming, unaffected almost unaccentuated Aurora, Maria Kowroski as a gracious Lilac Fairy and a superbly dashing and stylish Joaquin De Luz as the Bluebird.