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.
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.

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