DANCE REVIEW : Recalling the Balanchine Aristocracy : The middle three weeks of New York City Ballet’s tribute shows how he gave us a noble line based on artistic merit.

Following the death of George Balanchine 10 years ago, stellar dancer Edward Villella noted how the visionary ballet master had in essence given our country an aristocracy--a noble line based on artistic merit.

The era of Villella and other American “nobles” was relived during the middle three weeks, which ended Tuesday, of New York City Ballet’s eight-week “Balanchine Celebration.”

This segment recalled how grandly Balanchine’s empire grew once his company moved to the New York State Theater, the specially designed facility that still serves as its home.

The time covered by these 23 ballets goes from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Certain of City Ballet’s 1993 dancers, directed by Peter Martins, proved to be rightful heirs to this artistic inheritance. Others acted more like commoners.

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On paper, a four-part bill called “1957-1958 Premieres” gave strong testament to Balanchine’s ability to turn out masterworks one after another, as if the feat were as easy as walking from one rehearsal studio to the next.

“Square Dance,” which originally involved a countrified dance-caller, displays playful, classical moves to the music of Corelli and Vivaldi.

“Agon” probably qualifies as the most influential of Balanchine’s Stravinsky works, his so-called neo-classical, “black-and-white” ballets. “Gounod Symphony,” made with a Paris Opera commission in mind, has an especially large ensemble framing a leading couple. “Stars and Stripes,” which still raises the eyebrows of those who revere Balanchine for high High Culture, still wears marching band patriotism on its red, white and blue sleeve.

On stage, the Americana works lived more fully than the super-modernist “Agon” or the prettily perfumed “Gounod.” With a nearly all-new cast, “Agon” brimmed with eagerness but lacked confidence and force. Led by the workaday Judith Fugate, “Gounod Symphony” revealed motion but little moment.

Ballets in which Villella rose to fame--”A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Bugaku,” “Tarantella,” “Harlequinade,” “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet” and “Jewels”--dominated the 1960s sampling.

When Villella’s roles were performed by Peter Boal or, to a slightly lesser extent, by Damian Woetzel or Nikolaj Hubbe, they found new and vibrant life. When they fell to Gen Horiuchi, they paled. As the title Harlequin in the ballet/pantomime Balanchine deftly remade in 1965 from 19th-Century stock characters, Boal cut an impressively bold figure, both full and fine.

The ballerinas Balanchine paired with Villella, often Patricia McBride, sometimes Allegra Kent, certainly left their own singular marks on this period. Their standards of regal strength and musical delicacy, however, taxed City Ballet’s ballerina roster of today more than showcasing it.

Only Margaret Tracey, notably as Columbine in “Harlequinade,” made something of her own in McBride’s legacy. Neither Nicole Hlinka nor Fugate could do much more than labor through challenges McBride could illuminate.

“Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet” (1966) is set to Schoenberg’s orchestration of Brahms’ first piano quartet. Balanchine’s lush, romantic four-movement dance not only focuses on as many individual ballerinas but also as many leading male dancers. Descendants of their kind were not always available here.

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Wendy Whelan in the footsteps of the bold Melissa Hayden, Kyra Nichols following the mercurial Suzanne Farrell, Jock Soto as the gentlemanly Conrad Ludlow, Hubbe as the potent Villella and Woetzel as the cheeky Jacques d’Amboise mostly reclaimed their roles. Heather Watts as McBride, Darcy Kistler as Kent, Lindsay Fischer as Andre Prokovsky did not.

After its 1967 premiere, “Jewels” was dubbed the first plotless, evening-long ballet.

Using the music of three separate composers (Faure, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky), Balanchine fashioned discrete acts of a ballet evening: “Emeralds,” “Rubies” and “Diamonds,” respectively. His choreography surrounded his leading dancers--six ballerinas and partners, a soloist ballerina and a trio--with intricately worked and richly disposed corps de ballet ensembles.

In the “Celebration” performance only Nichols in “Diamonds” (as Farrell) shone with sure jewel-like brilliance. Otherwise, the effect went from that of semi-precious stones to that of mere paste.