© John Ross 'The Lesson' reviews 'Afsked' reviews 'Jockey Dance' reviews 'Napoli excerpts' reviews Kobborg in reviews Cojocaru in reviews Yanowsky in reviews Johan Kobborg company reviews more Jeffery Taylor reviews Web version held on Ballet.co by kind permission of Jeffery Taylor and the Sunday Express Express Website

But it is the best London can currently offer to such small-scale enterprises, mounted for the love of dance by exceptional artists such as Kobborg, Alina Cojocaru, Ricardo Cervera, Zenaida Yanovsky, Bennet Gartside and Jaimie Tapper, in this case to celebrate Kobborg's artistic birthright, the Danish school of ballet.

Such a collection of experience and artistic know how conquered the surroundings but little could soften the blow when the lights exploded on the opening number, Harald Lander's Grand Pas, Festpolonaise. Two glittering dolls, Kobborg and Cojocaru, apparently bemused at having wandered onto a building site, performed an off kilter duet to ear-splitting white noise and a sinking feeling that it had all been a terrible mistake.  

The Jockey Dance that followed, by the famous 19C choreographer and ballet master, August Bournonville who shaped the present Royal Danish Ballet, is a novelty turn and better suited to conquer the vicissitudes of its surroundings. Nevertheless Gartside and Cervera, though technically neat, struggled to find the humour in dressing as jockeys riding a symbolic horse race from Siberia to Moscow. Wolf whistles greeted Martin Harvey's muscular legs exposed by Tyrolean shorts when dancing a Duet from William Tell with Bethany Keating to Rossini's familiar score. Keating's approach to Brenaa's choregraphy was excessively timid, but Harvey's cheerful exuberance proved as reliable and as popular as usual.

Modern dance maker, Kim Brandstrup walked away with the first half with Afsked for Yanovsky and Dylon Elmore. Black costumes on a black stage lit by occasional bleak white lamps perfectly suited the minimalist stage. Brandstrup's dance language has seldom been more articulate than when capturing this beautifully phrased moment between a man and a woman, when saying goodbye lasts a lifetime.

The middle of the evening was Flemming Flint's expanded 1963 television ballet, The Lesson. Nearly a full set of scenery on loan from Denmark gave Kobborg, the Teacher, Yanovsky, the Pianist and Cojocaru, the Student, a head start. What made Yanovsky's buttoned down, Monty Pythonesque repression gripping was the hint of tongue in cheek as she obsessively prepared the basement dance studio for the next victim, sorry, pupil Cojocaru. The Royal Ballet wunderkind clearly enjoyed the innocent technical antics in her bunched hair and skimpy skirt, even Kobborg's wandering hands as the sweaty, nervous Teacher with more than lust on his mind, failed to fluster her. It was when creepy Kobborg closed the curtains and started to undress that the naïve youngster decided to get out. But too late. He forces her into an erotic duet then strangles her in an orgasmic fit. Then there's just time to clean up before the next sweet young thing rings the doorbell for her lesson.

The evening's finale was Dances from Napoli, one of Bournonville's most popular suites of dances. The stage's lack of focus made the group of dancers occasionally appear untidy, but individually the piece was a succession of triumphs. Cojocaru not only flew through the technical intricacies with envious ease, she filled the stage with joy; Jaimie Tapper was a delight of unforced charm while Kobborg romped through the succession of show off dances as if to the manner born, which, of course, he is. We should be grateful for the extracurricular time and effort from their Royal Ballet duties these superb dancers put into mounting this kind of show. If only we could demonstrate our respect with a decent London dance theatre.