Ashton Edwards rushed across the stage and straight into Taylor Stanley’s arms on a Sunday afternoon at New York City Ballet. In “The Times Are Racing,” a fervent ballet by Justin Peck, that hug is part of the choreography — a freeze-frame of raw emotion, like a stop sign dropped into a sea of hurtling, sweeping bodies. The embrace is a signal for a new beginning: an intimate pas de deux that unfolds like a dream within a dream. Their performance glowed, and not just because it was newsworthy: This was the first pairing of two nonbinary dancers in a major pas de deux at City Ballet. But what mattered more was the energy between their physical forms; the warmth they radiated even at a distance; and their phrasing, which was so fluid that at times they seemed less two bodies than one.

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Persons: Ashton Edwards, Taylor, ”, Justin Peck, “, ” Edwards, Edwards, Stanley Organizations: New York City Ballet, Times, City Ballet Locations: New