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There’s much to love in Helgi Tomasson’s production of Romeo & Juliet, starting with Prokofiev’s sumptuous score.

The ballet’s second act, following Giselle’s death, is set in a spooky, mystical realm, precisely the kind of thing that so intrigued its 19th century audiences and made this ballet an instant classic.

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

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.

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

With Tchaikovsky’s dear, familiar overture, the reassuring sameness of Wendall K Harrington’s slide show projecting 1915 San Francisco scenes onto the curtains, we were all, most decisively, back. 

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.”

Wheeldon’s Cinderella is the kind of production that so enthralls, you immediately want to make plans to see it again.

In Helgi Tomasson's production, Michael Yeargan’s scenic design and the late Martin Pakledinaz’ sumptuous costumes create a scene so charming, you just want to climb inside and stay in that world all evening and beyond.

An exciting London season closes with a glimpse of where ballet is headed, San Francisco style. 

An enjoyable evening of thematic dance but without any insights into the future of ballet. 

A welcome return to London for America's oldest ballet company begins with a highly personal interpretation of Shostakovich in dance 

Ulrich Birkkjaer presented an affecting portrait of a tormented Shostakovich, as he paced, leapt, slumped, was propped back to standing, and relentlessly propelled forward.

There is a kind of purity to Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem, and a very human sense of longing and loss.

In this era that venerates the contemporary, it’s rewarding to see the classics faring so well, and San Francisco Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty is a winner for all.

San Francisco Ballet's Don Quixote is ultimately a winning production with surprising warmth and heart.

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.

San Francisco Ballet returns to the War Memorial Opera House with the beloved holiday classic that had its North American debut here.

Most of the pieces were choreographed at a similarly demanding level, with speed, precision and immaculate timing as necessities.

Benjamin Freemantle danced the opening solo, gorgeously, in the role of the grandfather as a dreamy young Adonis. 

Unbound by restrictions, they’ve been given free rein to create, implement and demonstrate to the world what contemporary ballet looks like. Hint: it looks great.

Sneakers gave even the most challenging of balletic steps a freer, looser quality, as if the dancers were about to step into flight.

San Francisco Ballet delivers the distinct and the relevant in a mixed-bill program of choreographic works that includes Ghosts in the Machine.

From the ethereal to the galavanting, the program offered a spectrun of emotions delivered with precise technique and abandoned energy. 

Watching this ballet, one is offered a glimpse of a past world and aesthetic, beautifully preserved.

San Francisco Ballet gives a rousing account of Justin Peck's ground-breaking Rodeo, newcomers Ana Sophia Scheller and Ulrik Birkkjær make waves, and Carlo DiLanno wins my vote for MVP at this season's gala. 

Wednesday night at the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco Ballet’s opening night, offered a deeply comforting, festive return to a sparkling production that never fails to delight.

The show stealer is the opening scene of Act III, as the curtain rises to reveal a line of females, both human and forest-creature, seated, waiting to try on the slipper the prince holds. It’s brilliant, laugh-out-loud clever.

Changes in pace for a brilliantly dynamic company.

It’s here where the full onslaught of Kochetkova’s formidable talent comes into play. As Odile, she was virtuosic, wondrously flashy, whipping off multiple pirouettes and high arabesques with a powerful attack.

Set to Frank Moon’s moody, thematic score, the curtain rises on a foggy night scene as a shiny black stretch limousine glides onstage—the real deal, dazzling to behold, like a noir film come to life.

It’s all there: flashy extensions whipped into ecstatic heights, bravura speed and precision, intricate entanglements of dancers, whimsical wit and the loving nod to an adulation of Woman.

Here technology breathes theatricality into vast architectural sets, where shadows haunt and light electrifies. 

Resident choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s Optimistic Tragedy is dedicated “to those who sacrificed their lives for future generations.” 

Tomasson's Land of Snow is a feast for the eyes. Principals Mathilde Froustey and Carlo di Lanno were a gorgeous, impeccable Snow Queen and King in one of the most reliably spectacular sections of this production.

A fairy-story for grown-ups. Wheeldon's charming Cinderella for the San Francisco Ballet. 

The San Francisco Ballet's 2016 season culminates in a dazzling, masterful rendition of John Cranko's Onegin, bringing passion, fury and drama to the War Memorial Opera House stage.

What Wheeldon seems to have used from this musical concept for the formation of the choreography is the idea of a mechanical universe, overrun by the presence of time.

A vast world of movement rose in celebration of the body’s athleticism and its subtle connection to emotions and personality. 

San Francisco Ballet pairs Possokhov’s irresistible multimedia dazzler “Swimmer” with Robbins’ elegant “Dances at a Gathering”, for a compelling night of dance.

This version of Coppélia is a testament to Balanchine’s ability to accept the history of dance with equanimity and grace.

The San Francisco corps de ballet shines as the collective core in Helgi Tomasson's Swan Lake.

San Francisco Ballet opens Program 2 of the 2016 season with pieces by two cornerstone American choreographers, George Balanchine and Mark Morris, and a world première by British choreographer Liam Scarlett.

San Francisco Ballet's first program of 2016, featuring Forsythe's rarely performed Pas/Parts and the revival of 7 for Eight and Magrittomania, leads the way into an exciting season.

San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker returns to the War Memorial Opera House, with its festive, distinctively San Francisco rendition of the classic ushering in the holiday season.

San Francisco Ballet's Giselle brought enthusiastic Beijingers out in hordes to see Yuan Yuan Tan in the title role at the National Center for the Performing Arts on Friday night. 

On the second night of San Francisco Ballet’s second visit to Beijing, the company treated their Chinese audience to a varied programme: Tomasson’s Caprice, Wheeldon’s Rush, van Manen’s Variations for Two Couples, and Balanchine’s Theme and Variations.

San Francisco Ballet's Program 7 features Tomasson's Caprice, Balanchine's The Four Temperaments and a new creation, Swimmer, by Yuri Possokhov.