All the casts of “Rubies” were impressive. These dancers understand Stravinsky and handle the music—the Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra—with confidence, as does the orchestra under the baton of Andrew Litton, and the pianist Stephen Gosling. Fairchild and Anthony Huxley were playful and frisky as the young couple who flirts and tangos and stamps its feet in the pas de deux. Tiler Peck and Roman Mejía were more sophisticated and knowing; Peck, especially, played with the music and teased the audience with shoulders and hips, and Mejía showed off his impressive jump, as well as his just as impressive smile. In her début, Emma von Enck’s fast, sharp footwork was complemented by Jovani Furlan’s witty partnering. Each of the three Amazons—the role is known as “tall girl”— was convincing in her own way, Nadon blithely powerful; Kikta more consciously sexy; Christina Clark a leggy ingenue.

Everyone loves “Diamonds,” and it’s understandable. The closing ballet of “Jewels” is wonderfully grand, full of processionals (more walking) and architectural patterns in which arms and legs move in counterpoint, bringing the entire stage to life. As Balanchine would say, it is an “applause machine.” The finale has the same spirited atmosphere as the wedding in Petipa’s “Sleeping Beauty.” By that point everyone has forgotten about the opening waltz, which, in contrast, seems to go on forever, while going nowhere. 

It's treated as filler, a warmup before the dramatic pas de deux that follows. That pas de deux, too, begins with a grand diagonal, in which the man and woman walk toward each other, approaching from opposite corners of the stage. Their danced conversation, led by the adagio from Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony, grows in intensity, starting and stopping, building ever more tension. It’s a role for a ballerina who can ride the wave of Tchaikovsky’s great crescendo of emotion.