Hilaire en l' Air

Laurent Hilaire is an etoile. That's what the French call their principal dancers at the Paris Opera Ballet. He couldn't have a more apt title. Elegantly longlimbed and narrow-waisted, he possesses a face that is as pretty as it is ugly. Lupine glamour personified.

Beginning in March at the Kennedy Center he will dance the role of Solor, in La Bayadere, the production choreographed last October by Rudolf Nureyev for the Paris Opera Ballet. Solor is one of the longest and most arduous parts in the male repertory. Few men even aspire to it. Hilaire himself admits it was a bit of a stretch for him to impersonate a flamboyant Hindu warrior instead of the classical princes that are his forte. It is no small tribute that Nureyev chose him to dance the world premiere of what turned out to be his last production.

Act Three is the tour de force. It has been said that if you don't like Act Three of La Bayadere, you don't like ballet. Acts One and Two are monuments to kitsch—all Moorish filigree and Mogul splendor—and are often omitted from performances. But the dancing is the main thing, especially in the "Kingdom of the Shades' ' finale, which includes some of the grandest, most romantic and coldly formal dancing in the history of ballet.

DAVID DANIEL