San Francisco Ballet.

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET WAR MEMORIAL OPERA HOUSE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA JANUARY 24-MAY 6, 2007

On the eve of its diamond jubilee, the San Francisco Ballet has found itself in what may be a period of epochal transition. The diet remained as varied and provocative as it has consistently been during artistic director Helgi Tomasson's 22-year tenure, but generational change gnawed at the company's hide throughout its 74th season. Last year, ex-Bolshoi soloist Yuri Possokhov hung up his ballet slippers to become choreographer-in-residence. This spring, the impossibly charismatic Muriel Maffre retired after a gala that summoned colleagues and admirers from near and far. Homegrown golden boy Gonzalo Garcia, a generous spirit and irreplaceable presence, announced his departure for a freelance career. A rash of long-term injuries propelled overlooked members of the corps into career-making assignments.

Tomasson, as usual, did not stint on importing challenges. The repertoire expanded significantly with company debuts by two contemporary classicists: England's Wayne McGregor and Canada's Matjash Mrozewski. New, problematic works by Tomasson and Possokhov complemented them. Company premieres by Robbins and Wheeldon proved audience favorites.

In a movement language influenced but not dominated by William Forsythe, McGregor's multimedia Eden/Eden, like its musical source, Steve Reich's Dolly, spins an absorbing cautionary fantasy about cloning and what might happen if science ever learns how to replicate humans, as well as sheep. It happens under a blighted Edenic tree, as our cyborgs, Maffre and the magnificent Jaime Garcia Castilla rise from under the stage. They are newly hatched, bald, seemingly unclothed and ungendered. They test their resources. Backs arch precariously; limbs flutter and flail, as if they had been sewn onto their torsos. Costumes descend from the flies, and the process of socialization begins. The movement scheme slips into ballet, seven additional dancers join the principals, and the hectic trajectory suggests a society that barely has its humanity under control. McGregor's lighting director, Charles Balfour, and costumer Ursula Bombshell made smashing debuts.

Mrozewski's promising Concordia endeavors to find a route between the protocols of ballet and an evolved, ballet-tinged modernism. The choreographer has chosen wonderfully complementary Matthew Hindson scores, which deconstruct and reharmonize a Romantic masterpiece, Schubert's G Major String Quartet. The modern couple, Maffre and Pierre-Francois Vilanoba, favor precarious balances, scooping arms, and chest-to-chest confrontations. At first, the classical pair, Gennadi Nedvigin and Kristin Long, maintain a gracious decorum, while a quartet of subsidiary dancers mediates between the couples. As the work progresses, voluptuousness seeps into the ballet folks' limbs, while the moderns stumble into sweet compassion. In Concordia, Mrozewski seems to advocate one dance language spoken in several accents.

On a lower level of accomplishment, Possokhov's first venture in his new post was a Firebird retold in cartoonish terms. Adapted from a 2004 Oregon Ballet Theatre commission and accompanied by a mish-mash of various editions of the Stravinsky score, the work appealed to those who like their myths punctured by a scimitar. The prince (Tiit Helimets) is a dolt who somersaults across the stage; the princess (Rachel Viselli) betrays all the depth of a trust-fund debutante. The firebird (Yuan Yuan Tan) flutters magnificently in an orange wig, trailing veils of the same hue. In Pascal Molat's dynamic performance, the sorcerer Kasehei was a leering high jumper. One admires Possokhov's gift for arresting tableaux, but this attempt at demystification yielded few rewards. The choreography too often found itself at odds with the weight and texture of the Stravinsky. A choreographer who ignores the score's stately climax in the final scene is asking for trouble.

Tomasson's own fresh contribution to the season, On Common Ground, looked like his most impersonal offering in years. Set to Ned Rorem's epigrammatic String Quartet No. 4 and decked out with alluring decor by Sandra Woodall, the piece trades in neoclassicism at its most angular, without shaping it into any kind of emotional statement. The principals, Tina LeBlanc, loan Boada, Lorena Feijoo, and Davit Karapetyan, did what they could to impart tonal nuance.

Robbins' Fancy Free made its long overdue SFB debut with uneven results. The opening cast's trio of sailors--Garcia, Molat, Garrett Anderson--overacted and mugged, while Garcia never found the beat in the danzon, and the women underplayed. A second cast was more congenial, with Rory Hohenstein and Ruben Martin sealing their reputations, Benjamin Stewart emerging from the corps to deliver a star performance and Sarah Van Patten proving delightfully aggressive in the old Janet Reed role.

Van Patten, promoted midseason to principal, betrays technical lapses (mostly of coordination in turns), but when the material is right, she soars. Watching her smitten Julie in Wheeldon's Carousel (A Dance) melt in the arms of Vilanoba's ominously dashing Billy Bigelow bespoke a deep identification with the work. This remains a sophisticated piece d'occasion, but it demands a more meticulously rehearsed corps than SFB's.

Molly Smolen marked her first gala opening as a company member by dazzling the audience with her old Birmingham Royal Ballet hit, Ashton's Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan, but she has yet to secure her place in the repertoire. An early season Fairy of Courage (Sleeping Beauty) found her magnificently authoritative. A late season Kitri found her technically adroit, but temperamentally alien.

Karapetyan, who signed on in 2005, served notice (in both Sleeping Beauty and the first movement of Symphony in C) that he has refined his remarkable bravura attack to poetic ends. Nutnaree Pipit-Suksun's lyrically attuned, exquisitely molded technique continued to impress, though she awaits the major assignment that will make her a star. Individual members of the corps again reflected Tomasson's superior eye for recruiting promising talent. To note some of the incidental pleasures of the season: Lily Rogers in Forsythe's Artifact; Erin McNulty in Fancy Free; Garen Scribner, Courtney Wright, and Matthew Stewart (Benjamin's twin) in Concordia; Nicole Grand in Don Quixote; and James Sofranko (promoted to soloist midseason) in Jacques Garnier's folksy male trio, Aunis. Remember the names.