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Ballet Imperial, set to Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto no 2, has been absent from the Royal’s repertory since 1993, though a fleeting glimpse of it came in the gala at the ROH reopening. The current production features the grand Berman designs from 1950 when it was first staged here with white and brown costumes and imposing decors which suggest imperial Russian grandeur and magnificence. The uniformly blonde wigs for all performers however have a slightly disconcerting and flattening effect, effacing the dancers individuality.

The Royal’s relationship to the mature works of Balanchine has always been somewhat problematic. It’s not their mother tongue and they do it carefully, like someone trying very hard to maintain the correct foreign accent and worried about it slipping. The reason for watching is not to see the Royal dancing Balanchine but to see Balanchine being danced. In Ballet Imperial it is a delight to watch Balanchine playing with the corps of sixteen women and eight men to see how these can be grouped, regrouped and reshaped in a multiplicity of forms. It is a masterclass in form and inventiveness.

Darcey Bussell was in the lead ballerina role here, looking perhaps a little preoccupied and not quite at one with the music, but grand and gracious at the right moments. She barely seemed to need the attentions of her partner, Rupert Pennefather. Yanowsky as the second ballerina seemed to be the only person on stage who looked like she was having a wonderful time and truly enjoying herself. The work was set by Patricia Neary who appeared on stage to a warm reception, in a little black dress which showed off her still fabulous legs.

These performances are dedicated to the memory of Moira Shearer, who had great success in Ballet Imperial died a few days ago and whose picture, in the original Berman costume, appears on the cast sheet.

The central section of the programme was two well contrasted pas de deux. The first was Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun which hasn’t been seen here for the best part of twenty years or so. (I think I can recall some very far off memories of Ravenna Tucker in this but I might be mistaken). It’s beautifully simple in concept, design and execution. The setting is an idealised ballet studio. We, the audience, are in the place of the mirror on the wall. A dancer is asleep: a girl drifts in: he wakes; they dance: she goes, he sleeps again. But somehow much more seems to happen in that ten minutes.

Carlos Acosta and Sarah Lamb both made their Covent Garden debuts in this work, which was staged by Jock Soto of NYCB. It’s an interesting challenge for Acosta. His fiery and explosive power isn’t called for here. He has to find other qualities. His feral quality is still there but reined back, languorous like a sleepy leopard. Acosta and Lamb have seldom been cast together before but on this showing, someone should start programming them together regularly: her cool blond poise contrasts well and their partnering looks like they were already a well established couple, with a constant sense of interplay and awareness of each other’s every move. Robbins makes a neat reference to the original Nijinsky work (Acosta has appeared in a reconstructed version here) in the man’s final stretch before lying face down.

Sarah Lamb is a first soloist who has been working hard and impressed many with her performances in the last season. Next we were to meet our newest first soloist, Alexandra Ansanelli, formerly a principal dancer with NYCB. Excluding guests, the Royal currently has ten female principal dancers and five men. The imbalance is less at first soloist level - seven women and six men. The company could do with more senior men. However, sometimes you see something when you are out shopping that you just have to have regardless of the current state of your wardrobe…..

Ansanelli was appearing in the Tchaikovsky pas de deux, a Balanchine work no doubt familiar to her, a showpiece which is probably a good choice to introduce her to English audiences. She was partnered by Federico Bonelli, who is just about tall enough for her. She is as tall as he, if not a little taller when on pointe. He was on strong form in his own variations and she appeared confident in his partnering.
 

Ansanelli has the appealing quality of looking as if nothing could be more wonderful to be here in this moment now and dancing. She tore through it blithely, phases finished with an emphatic flourish of the arms. It was a very powerful and strongly projected presence. On the strength of this short viewing though it’s impossible as yet to imagine quite where she fits within the company.

The Firebird was the closing work of the evening. This also featured a debut, that of Edward Watson as Ivan Tsarevich. His was a much bolder and vigorous reading of the part (and all the better for it) than a number of previous Ivan who have sometimes tended toward the insipid. The inclusion of a narrative work brought a good balance to the evening.
 

Leanne Benjamin was the Firebird. It’s a role she has appeared in many time over the years, but she just seems to get better – more fierce, more wild and more quiveringly birdlike as time goes on. She revels in her power to subdue Kostchei’s servants. Fine team performances all round here from Genesia Rosato and her enchanted princesses (they can’t catch apples for toffee but they do move beautifully).

Firebird has one of the most visually and musically sumptuous conclusions of any short work in the Royal’s repertoire, as the Tsarevich and his princess are crowned in a blaze of pomp and ceremony to Stravinsky’s closing bars. It’s wonderful stage picture and satisfying conclusion to a grand occasion. It would have been the ideal farewell for Cope and it’s a great shame that we won’t be seeing him in this due to injury. Still, it’s a well planned programme with interesting casts still to come.