Revisiting the Many Facets of Balanchine and Robbins.

New York City Ballet's latest evening, titled ''Founding Choreographers II,'' isn't as sedate as it sounds. The program, performed Wednesday night at the David H. Koch Theater, builds a world of dance, illuminating the virtuosity of a ballerina, the lush poetry of a couple and finally the scintillating power of a group. The first two ballets capture markedly different sides of George Balanchine in dances he choreographed near the end of his life: ''Ballo della Regina,'' an allegro fireworks display created for Merrill Ashley in 1978, and ''Robert Schumann's 'Davidsbundlertanze' '' from 1980, a passionate exploration of Schumann's life, drawing on his relationship with his wife, the pianist Clara Wieck. The finale is Jerome Robbins's pulsating ''Glass Pieces.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]