American beauty | 19 September 2012

Tragically, the number of ballet directors who can orchestrate good programmes and good openings is dwindling these days. Helgi Tómasson, of San Francisco Ballet, is one of the few who are still in the know, judging by the terrific bang with which his company opened last week in London.

Divertimento No.15 might not be one of George Balanchine’s greatest works, but it remains a delectable compendium of all the distinctive traits dance-goers love in Balanchine’s composition. Craftily entwined with and within Mozart’s music, the 1956 dance is one of the choreographer’s many tributes to the grand old era of the Imperial Russian Ballet — whence he came. Like any of the well-known 19th-century ballet divertissements, this one has great choral moments, lovely duets and a series of breathtaking solos. As such, it often edges dangerously towards the twee or even kitsch, but never slips into either, thanks to the still-refreshing unpredictability of the dance-maker’s genius. Ideas that seem to have been lifted directly from the classical repertoire take sudden, unexpected twists; jazz hips and non-balletic solutions pop up here and there, with tongue-in-cheek gusto.

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Yet Divertimento No.15, at the beginning of the opening night in London, after an eight-year absence by the company, can also be read as a precise artistic statement that acknowledges the significance of that all-American choreographic tradition that is still very much informing what is being created in the US. A tradition, incidentally, that is preserved by San Francisco Ballet with great care and respect, as the near-perfect performance of Divertimento confirmed, restoring the faith of those who believed that Balanchine’s style was lost for ever.

Edwaard Liang’s Symphonic Dances is one of the many works in which the influence of that performance tradition can be seen.