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This irresistible Nutcracker is a reliable delight in an increasingly unreliable world.

Helgi Tomasson and Yuri Possokhov's restaging of the 1869 Petipa classic brings a sunny smile to faces in San Francisco. 

“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.”

Among the standouts at the San Francisco Ballet gala evening performance were Ana Sophia Scheller in Rubies, Sasha De Sola in Études, Benjamin Freemantle in Agon, and Misa Kuranaga and Angelo Greco in Handel-A Celebration.

Damian Woetzel puts together programs, musicians and dancers with a creative curator’s eye and gets the most out of the new combinations. This show was great.

The fifth program of City Center's 12th annual Fall for Dance Festival had something for everyone and it was all good.

Beautifully imagined, Boston Ballet’s Coppélia delights with its charming sets, colorful costumes and charismatic leads. A storybook come to life, this ballet tells the fanciful tale of young love gone awry amidst a set of peculiar circumstances true to fairytale form.

In John Cranko's Romeo and Juliet, the story moves beyond star-crossed lovers and becomes a study of contrasts and conflicting forces. With set and costume design by Susan Benson, Boston Ballet's production of Romeo and Juliet adds layers of nuance to an old story, giving the audience much to ponder after the final bows.Don't be alarmed – if it's a love story you want, a love story you will get.