With “the world in such a bad place,” when “it feels like everything is collapsing,” the renowned Ukrainian–Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky recently confessed to The New York Times, “I ask myself, is it OK to just continue making your little art?” For this Miami City Ballet commission, at least, his answer seems to be yes. “Bringing joy is also important, and also relevant”—and what else are you going to do with Johann “The Waltz King” Strauss? Faced with musical froth, most choreographers betray their embarrassment with brittle steps; Ratmansky dives in. He matches the music’s schmaltzy waltziness, its melodic excesses, with his own more subtle and various kind. Along with Roses from the South: Three Waltzes for Toby, the M.C.B. program “Into the Magic City” consists of Balanchine’s mystical Serenade and his comic, tambourine-wielding Tarantella. “Bringing joy” indeed. —Apollinaire Scherr