LONDON.- Once upon a time, there was a plucky little ballet company that bravely toured all over the realm, bringing swans and fairies and tutus to all. Founded by a King (Harold King), it was called London City Ballet, and a real princess, Diana, became its patron. It survived from 1978 until 1996, when wicked powers (unmanageable debts) forced it to close.

Almost 30 years later, a fairy godmother appeared, and the company has returned to the stage.

The new London City Ballet, which opens the Joyce Theater’s season on Tuesday with an all-British bill, is the vision of Christopher Marney, a British choreographer. Marney, 45, was thinking about forming a small ensemble when an anonymous Japanese donor independently offered to fund just such a project.

It started when Marney choreographed a piece in Tokyo, in 2021, and then heard from an audience member. She wrote that “she had seen all the performances I had done in Japan,” Marney said, “followed my choreographic work there, and thought the next step would be to start my own troupe, which she would support.”

London City Ballet was Marney’s first experience of ballet: a performance of “Cinderella” in his hometown, Hornchurch, in Essex, when he was 11. “I knew immediately, this is my calling,” he said.

He danced with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and several European companies before becoming the director of the Central School of Ballet in London and its student ensemble; and for a short time he was artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company. For both troupes, he staged little-known, small-scale works by British choreographer Kenneth MacMillan and “began to wonder if there was a way of doing more of that kind of thing.”

While contemplating the offer from the Japanese donor, Marney came across the program he had saved from that “Cinderella.”

“I looked at the program and I thought, “Perhaps this is it,” he said. “This company that meant so much to me growing up, that took work to places that don’t get much live dance, that larger ensembles aren’t suited to.” The ethos of what Marney wanted felt similar to that of King, the South African-born dancer and choreographer who directed the original London City company. He died in 2020.

Marney talked to regional theaters around Britain to make sure there was demand for ballet. (There is!) And he discovered that no one held the rights to the London City Ballet name. He also met with former company dancers. “I didn’t want to seem to be exploiting the memory of the company,” he said. “I was doing this because it had directly affected me as a child, and I wanted to continue that legacy.”

Jane Sanig, who danced with the company from 1984 to 1996, said she was “thrilled to bits” when Marney came to her. “Re-forming London City Ballet was the best idea I had ever heard,” she said. “Nobody had ever taken our place: a proper ballet company, with a good standard, touring everywhere.”

Marney took a year or so to put the project together, deciding that it should be a 12- to 14-member ensemble, and — unlike King’s year-round company — operate on a six-month model, performing from spring to fall. (Two more donors were found to make up the annual budget of around $600,000; all have committed for three years.)

In another departure from its predecessor, the troupe won’t rely on the classics. Instead, Marney said he would like to revive works by eminent 20th-century choreographers like MacMillan, Glen Tetley, Antony Tudor and John Cranko. And he said he hoped to show ballets by choreographers who aren’t frequently seen in Britain, including Alexei Ratmansky and Justin Peck.

Nor will the new company depend on the kind of high-profile glamour that Diana, Princess of Wales, brought to the old one. “Diana would come to rehearsals and chat to us all, as well as host fundraisers,” Sanig said. “Harold was a genius at that kind of thing.”

Can touring without recognizable ballets work at a time when even well-funded companies are battling rising costs and squeezed budgets?

Signs are good so far. The company’s first season, which will conclude in New York, had a sold-out run in five British cities and tours to Portugal and China.

“It’s clearly a challenging time in the arts,” said Alistair Spalding, the director of Sadler’s Wells. “But the company is light on its feet, a great proposition for regional theaters that are getting even less ballet now that the Russian companies aren’t touring, and it will enable some repertory that has been a bit left behind.”

The company’s program in New York includes Liam Scarlett’s early “Consolations & Liebestraum” and Marney’s “Eve.” Linda Shelton, the Joyce’s executive director, said, “It’s great for our audiences to get to see works and choreographers that are new to them, or that they don’t see much of.”

Next year’s season is already booked, but will the company live happily ever after? “We have three years to build an identity and the support we need,” Marney said. “Angels who believe in access to ballet, everywhere.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.