WALNUT CREEK, CA—The focus is on that precious asset, professional ballet. At a time when larger cities (San Jose comes to mind) has seen such an asset vanish more than once, this suburban community does just fine with its mobile 10-dancer version, now living out  its silver-anniversary program in unfettered leaps and bounds.

The Diablo Ballet’s celebration seen March 22 was exuberant, animated and entertaining: half dancing, half historical documentary. The film made a strong case for what a dance company brings to a community, aptly summed up by dance alumna Hiromi Yamazaki, how it brings “life and love and joy to audiences.” And when presented with a six-figure check/donation at center  stage, longtime artistic director Lauren Jonas brought yet more emotion, having to fight back tears of gratitude.

The dance work, Julia Adam’s ballet “Once upon a Time,” was a lively, funny mash-up of some 10 fairy tales. Adam has a great knack for comedy, making even the opening schoolroom scene with all its limitations quite rollicking, peopled by  nimble dancers in short pants who really know their mime and farcical digressions. Dominating was the tall and intimidating teacher, Raymond Tilton, who seemingly could reach both wings at the Lesher Theatre by stretching out his arms and pick up, Hulk-like, even the largest dancers. He then returned, more or less,  as half a dozen male and female fairy-tale villains, changing costumes faster than lightning.

The pas de deux pair here was the studious Michael Wells with the heroine of practically everything, the pert and mobile Jackie McConnell, who was variously Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Red Riding Hood. But I might have missed a couple of ’em. The two  made a memorable pairing when not yielding valuable playing time to a motley crew of Dwarves, the Evil Queen (with poisoned apple), the Step Sisters, and Alice’s Tweedledum-Tweedledee twins.

How opportune! In a masterpiece of compression, within a 40-minute span Adam spared us having to spend whole evenings by candlelight reading all those ancient fairy tales, some of them more Grimm than others. Given about two  more minutes of music by Gershwin and Britten, she’d assuredly have added roles of  Thumbelina, the Little Mermaid, Hansel, Gretel, Pinocchio and Beauty and the Beast.

The mixed audience of very young dancers having a night off and their adults loved it, in part because of the live band (Contra Costa Wind Symphony) in the pit.

Like most ballet-anniversary histories, Diablo glossed over its very serious financial crises in lapses since 1994. But the fact is, Diablo survived the ER and life support, rising like Lazarus again and again, still standing, moving, and inspiring with arabesques and entrechats, to say nothing of playing intermittently for the disadvantaged. Meanwhile other troupes elsewhere bit the dust. To us, that’s the most inspiring part of the entire Diablo roller-coaster years.

Diablo Ballet’s 25^th-anniversary program of docu-film and Julia Adam’s live ballet “Once upon a Time.” Through March 23 at the Lesher Theatre, Walnut Creek. For Diablo info: (925) 943-7469  or go online.