Since he co-founded the troupe 24 years ago, there has been turnover. But many of the performers now with him have been in the company for some time, some for 10 years. Given his predilection for diverse repertoire, that seasoning is well appreciated.

"I can say guardedly we have a vast repertoire in terms of style," Villella says. "There's not just the 19th century base that influences so much ballet. There's the neoclassicism of Balanchine and the mix of modern, jazz, ballet and ethnic you find in Tharp. It takes time for people trained in 19th century technique to be able to jump from style to style."

Dancer Racheal Nole began preparing for the role of Odette in "Swan Lake" when she was a little girl, studying at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C.

"For me, Swan Lake is religious. When I was little, we learned to do certain exercises to open our shoulders so that when you dance 'Swan Lake,' your arms will be right," she said. "All of that started for me 20 years ago, preparing me to do what we're going to do on Friday."

Maina Gielgud’s production of the 19th-century Romantic classic “Giselle,’’ danced with eloquence and depth last night by the Boston Ballet, is so lucid in its portrayal of the work’s central themes that each time you see it, you grasp something new, not only about the piece’s structure, dynamics, and steps but about the capacities of the human soul. Indeed, Erica Cornejo (Giselle) and Nelson Madrigal (Prince Albrecht) in the lead roles spark an insight of timeless proportions: that there is redemptive power not just in forgiveness, but in how shattered dreams can make us grow.

That doesn't make the four pieces on this program exactly a walk in the park. Alexei Ratmansky's "Valse-Fantasie," to Glinka's eponymous score, challenges Baryshnikov to tell a story of lost love, reunion and disillusionment with Chekhovian weariness, to music he holds in his Russian bones. He enters quietly, adjusts his clothes, puts his hand on his heart as he often did as the greatest classical dancer of his generation, shakes his shoulders, twitches his knees, anxiety taking hold. At the end, he uses his elegant hand to mime a gun to his head, shrugs, puts it away -- "She's not worth it" -- and leaves the audience laughing.

In truth, Scottish Ballet hasn’t quite mastered Balanchine’s steps but they are fiendishly difficult and they haven’t danced them for long. In time, improvement seems probable. Fast forward to 1998 and William Forsythe’s Workwithinwork (to Berio), which picks up where Balanchine left off. People often mark Forsythe down for “empty athleticism” but his work has a bleak glamour that the cast of 16 fully grasped, with Tomomi Sato and Tama Barry especially connected to his dark languor and psycho-dynamic shadows.

Making its London premiere is Krzysztof Pastor’s In Light and Shadow. Beginning with a delicate, reflective well choreographed duet to the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the piece twists and turns into a rich tapestry of explosive solos, duets and ensemble work, with quick-flowing contemporary lines and sculpture-like poses that flirt with the musicality.

The company has grown to have both style and athleticism, but show no work by a Scottish, still less British, choreographer. Nor is this a real celebratory programme that leaves one dancing on air on the way home - but perhaps London audiences are spoilt by having so many great international companies visiting.

The Shanghai National Ballet will present Romeo and Juliet on Sun, Oct 4 and La Sylphide on Tue, Oct 6 - both starting at 7:30pm at Thailand Cultural Centre. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, with its tale of star-crossed lovers, family conflicts and tragic consequences, remains one of the most well-known, moving love stories around the world.

The Shanghai version of Romeo and Juliet is adapted into a three-act ballet by celebrated choreographer Derek Deane, former artistic director of the English National Ballet.

The Milwaukee Ballet Company is starting its 40th anniversary year with a $1 million gift from the Dohmen Family Foundation that will back a strategic plan to lift the Ballet’s national profile.

The multi-year, $1 million pledge is the Ballet’s biggest gift since Jack and Joan Stein donated the same amount in 1998 to rework “The Nutcracker,” the Ballet’s annual moneymaker.

Because of the limitations and opportunities afforded by its new temporary space, Ballet Theater has commissioned three new works from those three choreographers: Aszure Barton, Benjamin Millepied and Alexei Ratmansky. Describing the endeavor as a site-specific experiment, the company would not confirm whether it would return next year to City Center, stay at Avery Fisher or head elsewhere.

In part, at least, that decision will depend on how well the choreographers and dancers can adapt to the new performance space, where there are distinct challenges. For starters, the stage lacks both wings and an orchestra pit, and its dimensions, as befits a concert hall, are intimate compared with the depth of the house. Instead of a black backdrop there is light wood paneling, complete with visually intrusive sound reflectors.

But on this night, it was impossible to ignore the elephant in the room: the issue of live vs. taped musical accompaniment. The troupe performed without its usual support from Fort Worth Symphony players, a move that the company made this season for financial reasons. Pianist John Owings performed onstage in one segment, theater artistic director Ben Stevenson’s gorgeous Three Preludes, but everything else was performed to recorded scores, and that created some controversy. Pickets were seen outside the hall before the performance with placards protesting the move ("Press the Eject Button" read one). And inside the hall, the Texas Ballet Theater responded with a program insert defending the move and explaining how painful the change was for all concerned.