Performer: Cordula Merks

Swan Lake is the last program of the San Francisco Ballet’s season and of the 37-year tenure of retiring artistic director Helgi Tomasson.

The ballet culminates with fouettés, bravura leaps from the oversized ensemble and a rousing finish with all 44 dancers onstage. It was an exuberant end to an intelligent, satisfying production, both of thought and movement.

“Your love affair with ballet, your time with ballet, is short,” explains Welsh about his ballet Bespoke, “Eventually you lay down, and dance keeps moving. It’s a bittersweet thing.”