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In the days before I saw the Royal Ballet in performance I used to enjoy Cormac Rigby’s Radio 3 programme in the 1970s, Royal Repertory. It was there that I heard the thrilling bombast of Poulenc’s organ concerto for the first time – and I remember too Rigby’s descriptions of the luminous designs and performances in Voluntaries at that time. I first saw the piece in the theatre in 1980 (yes, the Royal Ballet toured to Liverpool then). I was still thrilled by the score but underwhelmed by the repetitious aerial acrobatics of the ballet.

Poor Cranko – what flaccid memorials he has in MacMillan’s Requiem and Tetley’s Voluntaries. Both use superficial scores as the springboard for ballets that manage to be religiose without being spiritual. Now, in Voluntaries, Federico Bonelli registered strongly in the central couple. He needs a longer limbed partner than Leanne Benjamin for the shapes and lines of their lifts and balances to really sculpt themselves fully. In the supporting trio Sergei Polunin outpaced Thiago Soares considerably. The ensemble was energetic but utterly unengaging in what they had to do. I had a similar response too to Tetley’s Dances of Albion.

(But I still like Poulenc’s score – in my mind’s eye it would be wonderful music for a balletic telling of the Electra story).

My first viewing of The Lesson. To borrow a famous quotation, what a “shabby little shocker” – but like Tosca, it is very well crafted and makes its effects with great economy. I thought though that this is a piece better suited to the repertoires of, say, NBT or BRB than as the meat in a RB sandwich. It would certainly overturn some preconceptions about ballet and win some converts.

It was engrossingly performed by Edward Watson and Yuhui Choe, less so by Elizabeth McGorian. Watson was remarkably vivid – a combination of the innocence of Alec Guinness in Ealing Comedy days and the sadistic nastiness of Sean in Eastenders. Only a pity his acting didn’t carry through to his dancing, but a performance that makes me impatient to see him again as Rudolf in Mayerling. How much more these roles pull from Watson as a performer than do the pallid princely ones (think Palemon and yawn!).

Back in 2006 after Chroma I was excited at what McGregor might do as “resident choreographer” for the Royal Ballet. Looking again at Chroma in revival this year, and now at Infra, it appears that McGregor is looking at what the Royal Ballet might do for him. Infra is a self-indulgent work. It’s small in how it uses the ROH stage, small in how it projects into the auditorium. It’s small too in its chosen few cast of dancers. It’s a work that doesn’t challenge or extend the work of the company as a whole, as the work of a resident choreographer can.

Infra would be seen to better effect in a smaller theatre, or would work well on a thrust stage such as The Roundhouse. Such a transfer however, would not disguise that Infra offers nothing new. Placing Infra on the same programme as Voluntaries makes McGregor’s new work already hugely dated. We’re stuck in the same cul de sac that contemporary classical ballet has been for a long time now.

Voluntaries and Infra both share a style of choreography that flattens and negates the individuality of the dancers, rather than being inspired by their physical attributes and personality. What we see is a purely physical straightjacket. Credit then to those dancers in Infra who stood out – Paul Kay in his opening solo and Ricardo Cervera (one slip apart) both emerged as rather more adult than we often see them cast. Eric Underwood had a beautiful rippling solo and a thrilling duet with Melissa Hamilton. The rest didn’t register for me.

I trust Moritz Junge will be returning his fee for “costume designs”…