Though otherworldly — when the ballerina appears, you can’t be sure if she is a vision, a memory or a woman — “The Dreamer” is also grounded by an earthiness. “Forget that you’re onstage,” Mr. Baryshnikov told Mr. Garcia at one point during the rehearsal. “We know that you’re well turned out,” which refers to the rotation of the legs at the hips.

Mr. Baryshnikov wanted Mr. Garcia to walk like an ordinary person, not with his toes pointing out, just as he urged him to relax his fingers and hands. “The minute there is tension in the wrist and the hands, then it’s like the eyes do not express anything,” Mr. Baryshnikov said later. “They are dead. There is something unfinished. When I look at classical dance, if the hands are not telling you something about the interior of a dancer, I’m not interested in the dance.”

Dance, to Mr. Baryshnikov, is about five points: the head, the two hands and the two feet. “You cannot dance with three elements,” he said. “You have to think about those things all the time — that it’s natural extension.”

But most of all he urged Mr. Garcia to burrow into his imagination: What was his dream? “What is this about?” Mr. Baryshnikov asked. “Find something personal. Less is more.”

Mr. Garcia asked, “More jazzy?”

“It’s a little jazzy,” Mr. Baryshnikov said. “But you have to find how you would interpret that.”