Miami enjoying its own City Ballet

The Miami City Ballet, south Florida's newest cultural asset and the state's first fully professional resident ballet company, gave its premi`ere performances over the weekend with Edward Villella, the internationally acclaimed, American-born classical dancer, as the company's artistic director. Mr. Villella was the first American male dancer to perform with the Royal Danish Ballet and the only American ever to be asked to dance an encore at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. He accepted the full-time job here because ``it will afford me the opportunity to develop what I am really fascinated in: a company from scratch.''

After auditions in a number of cities, he organized a troupe of 19 young performers. One of the prized members of the company is dancer/choreographer Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros. His ballet, ``Transtango,'' was one of two world premi`eres at the opening here, and it will be performed again Oct. 31-Nov. 2 in neighboring Broward County. The program also included Balanchine's ``Allegro Brillante'' and the ``Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.''

To launch the new company, Villella recently presented the first in a series of ``dance talks'' aimed at giving the community an opportunity to become better acquainted with the fundamentals of ballet. He described ballet technique, and members of the company demonstrated it.

The Miami City Ballet has already received invitations to perform at the North Carolina Appalachian Festival in Boone, N.C., next summer and in Israel next fall.