Talk about pressure in the dancer’s subbing for the “Swan Lake” dream role! Because of a late injury, pressed into emergency fill-in service April 30 was Jasmine Jimison, who had never appeared as the Swan Queen Odette before. She saved the day for the S. F. Ballet with her studious, consistent interpretation, winning tsunamis of plaudits for her courage at the Opera House.

          Even better: She progressed to that feared-yet-envied double role, going from the White Swan to the villainous Black Swan Odile in animated, tireless fashion, undaunted by anything, caught as she was between the male Siegfried  and her controlling sorcerer Rothbart. It was as though she had danced Odile all her life, with tireless energy, vim and cunning deceit beyond belief (appending an irresistible smile even when flying through the air).

          Some dance Odile like a bot through the incredible technical/athletic demands of the tight-packed segment, ending with the ne plus ultra: The 32 fouetté whipping turns when you least want them, ending a taxing role. Through it all, Jimison remained sunny and speedy yet full of guile, acting the role as if instinctively.

          To become the ultimate home-grown (out of Palo Alto) White Swan Queen, she needs only to become a three-dimensional interpreter of Odette, with genuine feelings for the swain Siegfried, and not just a skillful technician making all the moves correctly in time to the music. But clearly she has overcome the biggest hurdles in what is for most budding ballerinas the ultimate role of all.

          Throngs of young students, devotees—drawn from the night’s full house inside—materialized in the lobby afterward to meet and congratulate the dancer’s emergency rescue during this late-season reprise of the lavish Ivanov-Petipa-Tomasson “Swan Lake”.

          Her partner Isaac Hernandez played a plausible Siegfried, handling the crossbow almost like an archer, ably making all the moves—though still doomed to be dismissed as a dull-witted leading man, unable to tell Odette from Odile.

The villainous winged magician Rothbart was played by Alexander Reneff-Olson, a mite too clean-cut, looking more like composer Franz Liszt than like a dark-side enchanter of the dozens and dozens of immaculate swans (at least 30) swarming on the stage.

          The April 30 success was also a feather in the cap for Tamara Rojo, the  (first-year) SFB artistic director. Still looking good enough to dance, the Spaniard fearlessly stood at the footlights to announce the injury-cancelation of ardently sought-after Russian guest star Natalia Osipova, the one responsible for the sell-out house. At the very least, that meant there’d be no fear of mass national protestors (responding to raging overseas combats) of the sort currently active in invasions at numerous university campuses.

          ‘SWAN LAKE,’ 2.5 hours, by San Francisco Ballet through May 5, Opera House, S.F. Rotating casts; two intermissions. For SFB info:  (415) 865-2000, or go online www.sfballet.org.