'Rhapsody' reviews 'Pavane' reviews 'Duo Concertant' reviews 'Symphony in C' reviews Acosta in reviews Benjamin in reviews recent RB reviews more Jane Simpson reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

Losing Christopher Wheeldon's scheduled new work spoilt the planned shape of the evening, and though we did get to see a piece he made for the company a few years ago, it's slight in comparison with what we've seen from him more recently. Set to Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante Defunte, it's a rather strange duet for Darcey Bussell and Jonathan Cope. She bourrees towards him in a very long skirt, which he removes: so who are they? Illicit lovers, or what? Nothing we see in the rest of the seven minutes it lasts gives us any clue, or even - as danced last night, anyway - convinces me that there's any very strong emotional relationship between them at all. It used to be brightened up by the dashingly elegant palazzo pants Bussell was revealed to be wearing, but now she just has a rather wispy chiffon skirt as seen in a hundred other ballets - a shame.

The other piece brought in to this section of the programme was Balanchine's Duo Concertant, and it was much the most strongly danced of the evening. The first few minutes - when the dancers stand by the piano just listening to the music - must be a nightmare to do, but once Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg could move away and start to dance they looked completely natural and at home. The choreography suits both of them admirably, and though they perhaps put a little too much emphasis on their loving relationship, her clear lines and his speed and wit illuminated a fine performance.

The re-redesign of Frederick Ashton's Rhapsody, this time by Jessica Curtis, takes the costumes back in the direction of William Chappell's originals, putting the leading man into a fairly plain tunic and tights - no glitz or gold-dust or spangles this time - and the women into, well, wispy chiffon: not bad but not very interesting. The sets for both the previous versions gave the feeling of an enclosed space - indoors, or in a garden - somewhere specific, at any rate; and I missed that here - there's a multi-coloured, swirly backcloth which is completely non-representational and could be used for a dozen different ballets. Rhapsody was, of course, made for the great virtuoso Mikhail Baryshnikov, and stepping into those particular shoes is going to be a challenge for his successors for a long time to come. I had thought Ivan Putrov might really be able to make something of it, but in the event his performance was a sad disappointment, poorly presented and nowhere near well enough danced. Possibly he's still suffering from his recent injury, but in that case what on earth was he doing on stage in such a demanding part? Without a bright star in the central role the ballet has hardly a chance, and though Miyako Yoshida, smiling and fleet-footed, did her best to pull it through, she and Putrov were such worlds apart that even the lovely pas de deux went for nothing. This was the most unrhapsodic Rhapsody I've ever seen, and my best memory of it will be of some real promise among the women of the corps de ballet, and fine dancing from some of the men.

Balanchine's Symphony in C managed to send me home cheerful in the end, but it was a close run thing. Over the years I've seen all of the principal roles well done by the Royal Ballet, but it's only on rare occasions that they get them all right on the same night, and this wasn't one of them. Bussell, in the long adagio of the second movement, looks beautiful at any given moment but she doesn't build her performance: there's no dramatic tension, nothing to stop you taking a few seconds out now and then to scan the corps de ballet and put names to a few more faces. She was well partnered by Thiago Soares, and in fact the men had the better of it for most of the ballet. Whatever the rest of the dancing has been like, though, the closing minutes never fail - it's one of ballet's great finales, impossible to resist.