SAN FRANCISCO — Ballet companies around the world struggle for a happy balance of past and present. At San Francisco Ballet, however, that balance is beautifully maintained — minus the struggle. Its artistic even keel is especially on offer this season, during which the company is celebrating its 75th anniversary. Since January, SFB has been performing repertory works ranging from “Giselle” to Jerome Robbins’s “West Side Story Suite.” But starting on April 22, the attention shifts forward. As a culmination of the anniversary season, artistic director Helgi Tomasson planned an ambitious two-week bonanza of world premieres. The aptly named New Works Festival includes 10 ballets commissioned from 10 of the top choreographers in the game, including Mark Morris, Paul Taylor, Christopher Wheeldon, and Jorma Elo.

The New Works Festival is organized into three programs that are scheduled on consecutive evenings and matinees. It’s a jam-packed schedule that works well for the ballet-minded traveler hoping to watch as much as possible. But it also illustrates the company’s commitment to new choreography — for the audience and for the dancers.

“Helgi has come upon a formula that pleases the folks who are looking for the classics and attracts audiences that are interested in contemporary works,” the company’s executive director, Glenn McCoy, said.

Mr. Tomasson, who danced with New York City Ballet in the early 1970s, became artistic director at SFB in 1985. Since then, he has honed a successful recipe that offers something for every taste. “In the process of putting all this in the grinder — not only the classics, but the neo-classics, the Balanchine, Robbins, Ashton, and the more modern and contemporary works — something came out right,” Mr. Tomasson said.

His emphasis on commissions makes San Francisco a hotbed of new choreographic talent. Mr. Tomasson typically creates a new work every season, and he has encouraged young dance makers who have come up through the ranks, including former principal dancers Yuri Possokhov (now the company’s choreographer in residence) and Julia Adam. Both of them have ballets in the New Works Festival, which will be an intense two-week period for the company. “Every year we do at least four or five new works spread out over the whole season. But never like this,” Mr. Tomasson said.

Part of what makes it possible for a company to dance such a varied repertory is that the dancers come from all over the world, bringing their own training and styles with them. And to some degree, that blend arose out of necessity.

“When I came here, more than 20 years ago, dancers felt it was very important to go to New York. Sometimes it was not so easy to get dancers to come and stay,” Mr. Tomasson said. “In the meantime, dancers were coming from Europe and wanted to audition for something in America. So I ended up taking dancers from abroad.”

But they didn’t just stumble into the studios by accident. Principal dancer Pierre-François Vilanoba arrived in 1998 from the Paris Opera Ballet, hoping to dance everything from Albrecht in “Giselle” to contemporary works. “I came to San Francisco because I knew that I would have a wide range,” he said.

And he’s not alone. The company’s openness to diversity in training (which is somewhat unusual on the ballet stage) has made it attractive to dancers who have studied in places as disparate as Boston and Havana. Of the 19 principal dancers, only three came up through San Francisco Ballet’s school. Six joined as soloists, and seven joined as principal dancers.

While the polyglot group could have resulted in a mishmash of individualism, Mr. Tomasson brings it all together by way of quiet leadership and clear artistic vision. He smooths out the differences — without smothering.

“In the Paris Opera Ballet, we are all taught the same way,” Mr. Vilanoba said. “Within this company, you have 10 different ways of doing a pirouette. They come from so many backgrounds, you cannot say, ‘Oh, that is San Francisco Ballet signature.’ The signature of San Francisco is more in the ballets we are dancing. When Helgi creates a ballet like ‘7 For Eight,’ this is very San Francisco Ballet — classical with a flair of contemporary.”

And when the audience comes to see this company dance, it can expect to see the hometown stars. This is a company that rarely invites guest dancers, an approach that Mr. Tomasson says creates an important feeling of identity and ownership.

“These are our dancers. It’s not like an opera company that can’t survive without bringing guest stars all the time. We are the opposite. We have our own stars,” he said.

His counterpart, Mr. McCoy, observes the effects of that feeling at the box office and fund-raising events. “There is a sense of civic pride in the company that probably hasn’t been seen since the ’49ers were going to the Super Bowl,” he said.

“We have a very loyal core audience. We have a subscription base of about 17,000 people. That’s before you put individual tickets on sale,” the marketing director, Julie Begley, said. “We continually have renewal rates of 80 to 85%.” But like most companies, this one has not always functioned so well. The current stability is due to an active, 68-member board that has enabled major projects, such as a dedicated building and major new productions. “They’re not a board that shows up to two meetings a year. We tend to have more interaction with our board than many of our peer organizations,” Mr. McCoy said. The company’s endowment has doubled in the last six years — from $43.6 million in June 2001 to $88.4 million in June 2007. And a campaign is underway to reach $100 million. While San Francisco Ballet has to compete for fund-raising dollars with a world-class opera company and symphony orchestra, all of the institutions benefit from two local forces: the city’s long history of philanthropy and the Bay Area’s proud connections to its cultural institutions. Said Mr. Tomasson: “This city is extraordinary in its support of the arts.”

How to See It

The New Works Festival is organized into three programs scheduled on consecutive evenings and matinees. A ballet-minded traveler (or at least one bent on extreme efficiency) could see 10 new works in 48 hours.

An itinerary could begin on Friday, April 25, with Program A, featuring the work of ballet’s current wonder-boy, Christopher Wheeldon, modern-dance great Paul Taylor, and the San Francisco Ballet’s choreographer in residence, Yuri Possokhov.

The next day, a 2 p.m. matinee offers Program B, with work by the internationally celebrated Mark Morris, the resident choreographer of the National Ballet of Canada, James Kudelka, the artistic director of Houston Ballet, Stanton Welch, and a former SFB principal, Julia Adam. Then after a short break, there’s an 8 p.m. curtain on Program C, which contains premieres by Boston Ballet’s resident choreographer, Jorma Elo, visionary Margaret Jenkins, and a frequent contributor to the SFB repertory, Val Caniparoli.

Between the matinee and the evening performance, there is plenty of time to explore the galleries, clothing shops, and treats that the Hayes Valley neighborhood has to offer.

A short walk from the War Memorial Opera House, this creative-chic neighborhood has the feel of Smith Street in Brooklyn. A must-visit is the French bakery La Boulange (500 Hayes St. at Octavia Street, 415-863-3376) where delicious croissants (plain or filled), sandwiches, fresh breads, and coffee await. The bakery has a generous, relaxed vibe and a condiment bar teeming with everything from olives and cornichons to Nutella. The restaurant Absinthe Brasserie is a popular spot for those sitting down to dinner before the show (398 Hayes St., 415-551-1590). And the Arleguin Wine Merchant sells a wide variety of California wine to bring back home (84 Hayes St., 415-863-1104).

For tickets and more information, call 415-865-2000 or visit www.sfballet.org.