As a dancer for George Balanchine at the New York City Ballet, Edward Villella quixotically combined acutely sensitive musicality with the swaggering physicality of New York street moxie. Over two decades, Villella has embued MCB with a similar combination of in-your-face energy and attention to the nuances of the company’s heavily Balanchine-influenced repertoire. This visit, MCB showcases two mixed-bill programs, opening with Jerome Robbins’ ebullient tale of three sailors on leave in Fancy Free, Twyla Tharp’s sensuous Nine Sinatra Songs and Balanchine’s neoclassical masterpiece Stravinsky Violin Concerto. The Sunday matinee includes Robbins’ celebration of Chopin in Dances at a Gathering paired with Western Symphony, Balanchine’s whoopin’ and hollerin’ tribute to the Old West. A not-to-be-missed finale for the Dance at the Music Center season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., dwntwn.; Fri.-Sat., June 30-July 1, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., July 2, 2 p.m.; $25-$95. (213) 365-3500.

—Ann Haskins

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