The presentation of Tatyana Parfyonova’s collection was a stunning performance, celebrating feminine grace and lightness of volumes. Professional Moscow ballerinas replaced models, which turned the catwalk into a theatrical dance performance – a gentle combination of various mediums of art. Corsets, long skirts, plush and silk – all that made the collection look like it was made for the stage. Though Parfyonova herself says the collection is still commercial.

The artistic director of the ballet has introduced edgier, even downright sexy programming - such as last season’s “Black and White.’’ But while Nissinen spent the past eight years pushing his company closer to the artistic edge, Bostonians still thought of the ballet as being staid purveyors of the “Nutcracker,’’ and other “museum pieces,’’ he says. “It’s important to me that we’re not seen as a museum or a church,’’ he says, “but a living theater that relates to today’s people.’’

Enter Denise Korn. The South End-based brand strategist (and Boston Ballet fan) had been chatting with Nissinen for nearly five years about freshening the ballet’s image and changing how the organization is viewed. Her company, Korn Design, has done image-reconfiguring work for tony hotels and restaurants around the country. She was even enlisted by Northeastern University last year to rebrand the school.

The production, with dancers Amber Scott as the lead Odette, Adam Bull as her Prince Siegfried and Lucinda Dunn as the 'other woman' Baroness von Rothbart put on a magical performance full of graceful agility.

A stunningly beautiful set and lighting that made many important moments shine helped breathe even more life into the story, as the company performed in Perth for the first time in five years.

Softly As I Leave You, choreographed by Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon, has a couple suffering the pangs of love. Alexei Ratmansky’s Bolero is set to the music of Maurice Ravel. With gloomy lighting, three couples dance with classical lines and a sharp edge to the well-known score conducted by Paul Murphy.

Although supposed to be inspired by the Ballets Russes, there is no great artwork or thrilling new music. Morphoses seems to exist to showcase short new ballets which are easier to create than long works and there is as yet no moment of choreographic greatness or outstanding new talent from the good dancers in this pleasant show.

“I intend to give it everything I’ve got,” he said. “But I have to be realistic. I don’t know whether we will make it.”

Mr. Wheeldon, 36, is one of the most important choreographers in the world, and one of the few considered to have the potential to keep classical dance a vibrant, evolving form. That kind of talent is a scarce commodity in the ballet world, which is ever seeking an heir to Balanchine; just as rare is the expensive proposition of a new company. So Mr. Wheeldon’s initial announcement that he was forming his own company was met with a glare of publicity and a flurry of speculative reports about his plans.

Softly is owed to Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon (of Nederlands Dans Theater) and proposes appalling behaviour by a brutish couple while music by Bach and Arvo Pärt is played. I can find not one iota of merit in its vulgar posturings.

The evening, happily, ends on a bravura note: Alexey Ratmansky’s response to Ravel’s Bolero. Rising above all the clichés of the score and of previous realisations (someone on top of a table shimmying like my sister Kate) Ratmansky deploys three women and three men, who are by turn soloists and chorus.