Wheeldon and Dealin’

New York City Ballet returns with Balanchine and Wheeldon works By [Susan Reiter] Following a brief winter hibernation after its five-week Nutcracker onslaught, New York City Ballet returns to its primary business Tuesday, Jan. 17, when it opens its six-week winter repertory season. While the company"s repertory has been opened up to an increasing variety of choreographers in recent decades, the vast archive of George Balanchine"s exceptional ballets remains its mainstay. The season"s first week culminates with a day celebrating Balanchine"s Jan. 22 birthday (happy 108th, George!). Its centerpiece is the 3 p.m. performance of two of the master"s most expansive and appealing works. Who Cares, a 1970 ballet set to a delectable array of Gershwin songs, celebrates the brash energy and romance of New York and alludes to Balanchine"s brief heyday as a major Broadway choreographer. The second half of the birthday program offers Union Jack, Balanchine"s majestic's and sometimes cheeky's 1976 tribute to all thing British. With its cast of 72 arrayed in kilt-clad regiments choreographed with thrilling precision and dramatic vigor, it is unlike anything else in the repertory. The military-style discipline gives way to an all-too-human music hall couple whose urge to entertain is sometimes greater than their actual finesse. The large cast then return in sailor suits to dance the go-for-broke Royal Navy section, which mocks every possible clichÃ&Copy; and is a rambunctious delight. When NYCB"s autumn season began in mid-September, considerable advance hype was focused on Ocean"s Kingdom, a new Martins ballet set to a score (and based on a concept) by Paul McCartney, which became a hot ticket. If you couldn"t get in and the largely negative reviews haven"t scared you off, there will be five more performances beginning Jan. 19. This season"s major premiere sounds a lot more promising. Christopher Wheeldon, while no longer the company"s resident choreographer, remains a regular contributor to the repertory and continues to be one of the ballet world"s most significant and in-demand choreographers. During a Monday event that is part of City Center"s intimate Studio 5 series, Wheeldon offered a brief advance look at a trio from the ballet that showed him working with refined musicality and fluency. The new work will be part of an all-Wheeldon program (Jan. 28 and Feb. 4) that includes his 2001 Polyphonia and the company"s premiere of DGV (Danse à Grand Vitesse), which he created for the Royal Ballet in 2006. Polyphonia has been in exceptionally fine shape as danced by its current casts last fall, and this brilliant, intricate work for four couples has already staked its claim as a classic of 21st-century ballet. DGV, set to a score by Michael Nyman, is a surging, propulsive work for a cast of 26, which had its New York premiere when Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon performed it at City Center two years ago. On Monday, Wheeldon remarked that he had created the still-untitled premiere provide the ideal contrast with the two earlier works on the program. â??I wanted to make something gentler, more romantic and classical to balance out the Ligeti and the driving, athletic world of DGV, he said. He also noted that he was still toying with the program order, contemplating having the new ballet open the program. Arrive late on Jan. 28 at your own risk! New York City Ballet: Jan. 17â?"Feb. 26, David H. Koch Theater, 20 Lincoln Center (63rd St. & Columbus Ave.), www.nycballet.com; $29+.