A night of world premieres headlined by one of today’s preeminent ballerinas—what’s not to love? Often enough, a good deal. Perhaps constellating new choreography around a star dancer, rather than the other way around, makes everyone feel exposed. So what does New York City Ballet’s Sara Mearns do? She ups the ante. The first of the two premieres that she commissioned for City Center is all about self-exposure. The auto-fictional Don’t Go Home, created by Mearns, National Ballet of Canada principal dancer Guillaume Côté, and theater maverick Jonathon Young “takes her through a maze where she’s at risk of not knowing where she is,” explains Young, a regular collaborator of Crystal Pite’s. The second premiere does the opposite. This physically expansive, musically provocative dancer surrounds herself with so much ecumenical talent—distinguished Ailey alum, including the work’s choreographer, Jamar Roberts; the all-female Bergamot Quartet, and the Caroline Shaw score they are playing—that she can lose herself to the steps and their music. —Apollinaire Scherr