“Two Birds With the Wings of One,” Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux’s new ballet for New York City Ballet’s Diamond Project, is a worthy entry into the annals of a disappearing genre: the ballet as dancer’s vehicle.

We don’t often see ballets designed to celebrate and frame the essential qualities of an individual dancer – or, in the optimum examples of the genre, elicit new qualities from the dancer being celebrated. Perhaps choreographers want to do this but don’t know how; maybe they are thinking more in terms of serving the music, or perhaps their belief in themselves as unique auteurs overrides an interest plumbing a dancer’s personal qualities.

Formerly a principal dancer at the Paris Opera as well as NYCB, Mr. Bonnefoux is now the artistic director of Chautauqua Institute’s ballet troupe and school. Sofiane Sylve is the ballerina he celebrated on Thursday night. He didn’t really show us something we haven’t seen from her, but Mr. Bonnefoux’s work focused and distilled her qualities. She was at her most theatrically potent in what seemed like the story of a queen welcoming – and all but devouring – a male visitor or would-be conqueror.

The entire production was Asian-inspired. Ms. Sylve wore an abbreviated cheongsam and white tights. The music by Bright Sheng, who was on hand to conduct, was performed live by soprano Lauren Flanigan, who recited in piercing ululations the texts of three Chinese poems.

Sebastien Marcovici was originally announced for the male lead, but Andrew Veyette danced opposite Ms. Sylve at the premiere. The talented Mr. Veyette has had to cope with an overload of technically demanding debuts this season, but Mr. Bonnefoux’s work allowed him to concentrate on theatrical projection. His stage presence seemed to blossom.

Both Ms. Sylve and Mr. Veyette interacted a lot with their respective entourages, which frequently bore them aloft cortege-style. Mr.Veyette and his virtual Argonauts moved with the weighted heft of sumo wrestlers. Very striking was a manege of barrel turns performed by the men with splayed bent legs; this was echoed by a powerful solo manege of jumps by Ms. Sylve. Distraught, she agonized, surrounded by a circle of the men pirouetting in second position.

Ms. Sylve and Mr.Veyette danced a duet in which he found himself the pursued object as well as the reciprocator of her existential longing. She followed him, repeating his steps before going limp in his arms. He disap peared, only to be brought back supported by his entourage, and she drew him, perhaps unto eternity, into her realm.

There were echoes in Mr. Bonnefoux’s work of earlier mating rituals at NYCB, such as Balanchine’s “Bugaku.” At times, Ms. Sylve was in touch with her inner barracuda almost to the point of suggesting of anti-heroine of Jerome Robbins’s “The Cage.” But she was also burdened by the angst of rulers isolated within their palaces, recalling the Soviet repertory’s Queen Mekmene-Banu in Yuri Grigovorich’s ballet “Legend of Love.”

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The most extraordinary element of American Ballet Theatre’s “All-Star Stravinsky” program Friday night was the performances of 90-plusyear-old Frederic Franklin as the charlatan in Mikhail Fokine’s “Petruchka.” Mr. Franklin was a star of ballet well before Fokine’s death in 1942, and it was fascinating to watch his wizened yet vital sorcerer function as a living link to a longgone era in which “Petruchka” and other mime-dramas were central to ballet company repertories all over the world. Today “Petruchka is far more marginal, yet it doesn’t seem superannuated when brought to life by an ensemble that enters into the spirit of the work as wholeheartedly as did ABT.

As the ballerina, Stella Abrera’s footwork went rat-a-tat-tat as blithely as the toy trumpet on which she tooted, while Julio Bocca’s Petruchka was an unsentimental exploration of the inner life of puppets. Marcelo Gomes’s Moor was amusing, painted as brainlessly haughty rather than menacing. And everyone else onstage con tributed to do justice to the minute detailing of the raucous crowds peopling the two fairground scenes.

Friday also saw the ABT company premiere of John Cranko’s 1965 “Jeu de Cartes.” Here, the dancers are poker hands repelling or inviting the intrusion of the Joker, who insists on his wild-card prerogatives. Balanchine’s original choreography was unveiled in 1937, a year after Stravinsky composed his wonderfully booming, raucous score. Balanchine’s “Jeu de Cartes” is now largely lost, but Cranko’s choreography retains some flavor of Balanchinian homage rather than imitation. ABT’s performance was diverting, rough-and-tumble fun.

In Balanchine’s “Apollo,” which opened the “All-Star Stravinsky” program, the balletic arabesque turns into a metaphor for chariot-wheel spokes and sun-ray vectors. Thus it seemed appropriate to discover the invigorated arabesques of Julie Kent’s Terpsichore and Maria Riccetto’s Calliope. Ms. Kent’s releve into arabesque was majestic: Her rise onto her toes seemed to radiate from her solar plexus. Ms. Riccetto’s arabesque was vibrant as well as pictorially perfect.

Gillian Murphy as Polyhmnia also showed considerable development since she performed the part last fall. Her technical nonchalance was blended to an easy flamboyance that wasn’t overdone, encompassing very low crouches and very high sallies into the air. Jose Manuel Carreno’s dignity and integrity in the title role were welcome, but he sometimes erred by evincing earthly masculine realism rather than lofty detachment.

The “All-Star Stravinsky” bill also gave Veronika Part a great chance to show her versatility. On Friday night, her “Petruchka” Nursemaid was a consummate display of acting and character dance. On Saturday afternoon in “Apollo,” she performed the best Terpsichore I’ve seen from her. She was in superb physical condition, her legs so light that occasionally they seemed a mite too pushed out, almost disconnected from her torso. But for the most part she used her extension to complement and enhance her whole figure’s spatial design.

Dancing his first Apollo on Saturday afternoon, David Hallberg gave a very good performance. One dynamic in the relationship between Terpsichore and Apollo is the way in which the callow young divinity acquiesces to Terpsichore’s civilizing wisdom. So did Mr. Hallberg in his debut seem to defer to Ms. Part’s experience in the ballet. They were manifestly simpatico despite the fact that not all the partnering was equally smooth. Once cool to the point of abstraction, Mr. Hallberg is now showing more presence.

City Ballet until June 25 at the New York State Theater (Lincoln Center, 212-721-6500). American Ballet Theatre until July 15 at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center, 362-6000).