And Mr. Stanley’s debut is meaningful to Mr. Hall. “There’s always a person in the audience who’s watching for the very first time,” he said. “Whoever comes in and sees Taylor performing will think of Apollo as someone who looks like him. That’s really important — and not to give him any more stress, but until now, we’ve had something that was cut from the same block.”

Mr. Stanley is not cut from any block. When Mr. Abraham was choreographing “The Runaway,” he recalled watching him at an early rehearsal. “It took everything I had not to just start laughing in shock at how good he was,” Mr. Abraham said. For Mr. Stanley, who became a principal in 2016, it’s a great time to be that good. Recently, the male principal ranks at City Ballet were depleted when three dancers left or were fired amid issues of sexual misconduct. (Another, Joaquin De Luz, retired.)

Mr. Hall sees Mr. Stanley as a role model offstage as well as on. “In this day and age, it’s important to see someone who is not only talented, but has a good heart,” he said. “That makes him a bigger star: to take the time to care for people when no one’s watching.”

And then there’s his luminous musicality and razor-sharp technique. “He’s a gentle tornado in a way,” Mr. Hall said. “He’s quiet and he’s so calm until he’s destroying your heart.” He added: “And then the minute you tell him how great it was, he runs away from it.”

It’s true that Mr. Stanley’s self-image could use improving. “He has the weight of trying to please everyone, and that is beautiful and humbling,” Mr. Hall said, adding: “He’s like the most perfect knight.”