This story happened more than 30 years ago: While entering a Lincoln Center theater for a performance of the New York City Ballet, a Richmonder ran into a Gotham friend. "Is this your first 'Four Temperaments'?" the New Yorker asked. "Yes." "Oh, I envy you. Nothing beats seeing this for the first time. For you, dance never will be the same."

The conversation referred to "The Four Temperaments," the ballet George Balanchine set to the music of Paul Hindemith. Indeed, that night changed the way the Richmonder saw dance. From that moment on, he absorbed more, and while watching ballet began to think in the vocabulary of choreography. Balanchine composed many plotless ballets; his masterpieces conveyed more than ballets starring princes with feathers in their caps.

Next year balletomanes in Central Virginia will have a chance to see "Four T's" without leaving town. The Richmond Ballet has scheduled it during a season that celebrates the company's 25th year as a professional troupe. In 2008-09, the company will present an eclectic mix of programs. Dancers will perform classics and new works. Performances will occur at the Landmark Theater and in the intimate Studio in the Richmond Center for Dance. The conviviality of the latter venue has attracted a following.

And as we said at the top, few experiences in the performing arts surpass the first viewing of "The Four Temperaments" -- or the 50th, as the case may be. Don't miss it.

. . .

Anne Sidney Davenport has meant a lot to ballet in Richmond. She studied at the School of the Richmond Ballet and danced professionally in Dayton, Ohio, and here. The season that ended last weekend marked her retirement. Dancers never disappear. Davenport will teach, thereby continuing the process in which artistry lovingly is passed through the generations. Aspiring dancers learn that the discipline of the basic movements, steps, and exercise frees them to transcend themselves. Ballet, especially as taught and perfected by Balanchine, is not only a sweet diversion but a philosophy. Mr. B would laugh at words he would consider pretentious. He would be right, yet the point is true.