Even in an evening of routine modern-ballet repertory works from recent seasons, you’re thunderstruck at the incredible proficiency of the S.F. Ballet dancers. In a piece like “Blake Works,” I found myself thoroughly irritated, mostly by the pop music lacking beats or focus. And yet the 20 or so dancers were so skilled and well-rehearsed, you thought they’d gone through training of a West Point drill team on the parade ground, then sped it up by four (an experience back east that I’d recommend to you, if you’ve never seen the cadets demonstrate perfection of group movement).

I loved the originality of Myles Thatcher’s funky, whimsical “Colorforms” (2021), born as a dance film with performers then in sneakers. Its dazzling colors knock you out while dancers play as if children before getting down to serious (dance) business, tossing paper airplanes whenever they want a breather. There’s a pas de deux for men, benches to move about and dance over (sorry, Fred Astaire, we can’t resist!), and a giant stage frame behind which the whole kit and caboodle can gather for a group photo. The frantic musical pace is by Steve Reich, whose rhythmically complex output is sometimes mistaken for John Adams’ (and vice versa).

Clearly, SFB member Thatcher was having a great time manipulating and propelling, and, with partner Aaron Robison, Sasha de Sola was everywhere, seemingly in ascendancy toward being the SFB star.

That takes nothing away from the longtime leading lady Yuan Yuan Tan, who joined the SFB in 1995. In Helgi Tomasson’s “Seven for Eight” (2004)—-seven movements for eight dancers———the tall Tan showed her mettle in adagios set to Bach, partnered by, who else?, the same Aaron Robison.

And the SFB took no sides about Bach keyboards’ controversy in Martin West’s orchestra: Some was on piano, some on harpsichord.

But forget stars. Large ensembles, sometimes all male and sometimes as many as 20, flow onstage doing formation leaps and spins and kicks in perfect unison.

And if you relish popular dance modes, choreographer Forsythe adds to his ballet everyday social dance by young folk, swinging hips and sashaying young people having the time of their life in “Blake Works.”

Even though a wag suggested it could be retitled “Blake Doesn’t Work Here Any More,” the audience provided for it the loudest cheers of the night at the March 14 opener.

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET in ‘Colors of Dance’ rep program by Thatcher, Tomasson, Forsythe, March 14-19. For info: (415) 865-2000, or go online www.sfballet.org.

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