"Ballerina"

By JENNIFER DUNNING
Published: November 19, 1987
LEAD: ''BALLERINA,'' to be shown on the Arts & Entertainment Network tonight at 9 P.M. and 1 A.M.and on Sunday afternoon, is a feast. Part of a four-hour series written and narrated by Natalia Makarova and produced for the BBC and A&E, this homage to the ballerina begins a little slowly with looks at Marcia Haydee and Miss Makarova performing in ballets by Maurice Bejart and Roland Petit.
''BALLERINA,'' to be shown on the Arts & Entertainment Network tonight at 9 P.M. and 1 A.M.and on Sunday afternoon, is a feast. Part of a four-hour series written and narrated by Natalia Makarova and produced for the BBC and A&E, this homage to the ballerina begins a little slowly with looks at Marcia Haydee and Miss Makarova performing in ballets by Maurice Bejart and Roland Petit. There is an extended - and funny -rehearsal session for Miss Makarova with Jerome Robbins.
The program ends with too-brief glimpses of possible ballerinas of the future, including the poetic Metta Bodtcher and, most notably, Cecilia Kerche, a lovely Brazilian classicist of exceptional dignity. Along the way, we get an in-depth ballerina's view -through coaching sessions and film clips of rehearsals and performances - of such historical classics as ''Giselle,'' ''The Sleeping Beauty,'' ''La Bayadere'' and, most tellingly, ''Swan Lake.'' Films offer the viewer a chance to compare Margot Fonteyn and Elisabeth Platel as Aurora, and Galina Ulanova and Alicia Markova as Giselle.
Sir Kenneth MacMillan has some controversial comments to make about Marius Petipa and his ''acrobatics,'' which are followed, amusingly, by an acrobatic pas de trois from Sir Kenneth's ''Manon.'' Carla Fracci talks poignantly about creating the role of Juliet with John Cranko in his ''Romeo and Juliet.'' Then, in the memorable last section, we get to see Alexandra Danilova, still ''champagne,'' as Miss Makarova calls her, coaching girls at the School of American Ballet in New York, and Dame Alicia Markova, sweet-voiced and hawk-eyed, working revealingly with dancers of the London Festival Ballet.
Serious ballet fans will not want to miss the historic film clips of Anna Pavlova and Olga Spessivtseva, accompanied by the vivid observations of Sir Frederick Ashton and Antony Tudor. Miss Makarova is intrusive in the Ashton conversation, but she is otherwise a good interviewer and a glamorous and perceptive guide on this compelling journey through ballet history.
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