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Within a few bars of Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony striking up for Les Presages it was apparent where AB are as a company - young, eager, sharp and together as the corps came out in small groups looking strong and drilled in ways I wouldn't normally associate with English companies. Handsome, they punch at world class. Les Presages is a rarely-seen piece of Leonide Massine from 1933 and in his words (quoted by Raymond Stults) it depicts "first, life, with its ambitions and temptations; then passion ... ; thirdly, frivolity; and lastly, the culmination of man's destiny through conflict." There are some interesting roles for principals and soloists called Passion, Action, The Hero etc but I don't think its 30's allegorical underpinnings travel nearly so well as the choreography which, with its flattened, side-on, looks we rarely see these days. But the best was the way Massine works the corps in various massed ranks, often densely packed with inventive powerful arm and leg movements. It's old, but choreography this inventive can still make you do a silent "Wow, not seen that before". Danielle Rowe (as Action) was a powerful stage presence but Destiny, a role that should trump all in power and magnetism, seemed very under-cast though admittedly it's hard for a chap to look cool in black lipstick and mascara.

Rites is a joint work for the ballet company and Bangarra Dance Theatre, the Aboriginal company formed in 1989 and directed by the choreographer, Stephen Page, since 1991. It's inspired, both artistically and socially, that they worked together and we have Maina Gielgud first to thank for that, though it was Ross Stretton who, on starting his tenure as director, immediately commissioned Rites, which premiered in 1997. Stretton is often un-flatteringly remembered in London for his brief tenure as director of the Royal Ballet, but Rites is a fine reminder that he was about doing new and unique work and this was undoubtedly one of his actions that contributed to him being inducted in to the Australian Dance Awards Hall of Fame for example.

Choreographed by Stephen Page, the back history is his hope that it will challenge preconceptions about indigenous people and help in reconciliation. In the Aboriginal and Australian context that perhaps has greater significance but judged purely as art I think it a strong and moving piece of dance theatre. This is the powerful Rite of Spring music but appropriated to the forces of nature - earth, wind, fire and water. While the absence of a strong Chosen-one plot is missed, in compensation we get scenes of elemental spirituality and a very different movement vocabulary. For the most part its steps are aborigine-inspired and it's to the credit of the ballet dancers that they so readily adapt to the crouching, angularity and slow, stealthy, earthbound movement. It is though, the Bangarra dancers with their differently honed bodies that look most amazing to us on a dance stage and Patrick Thaiday in the opening section, emerging tall from a mound of ancestors, commands attention like few others can on a stage. Peter England's black set with a strong and changing central window of broken colour (reflecting fire, water etc) work handsomely but you keep being drawn back to the movement and body shapes: from a very different strand of DNA. I'm not sure I really learned anything about Australia's ancient indigenous culture, but I did come away having seen a uniquely Australian Rite of Spring, reflected on how very different cultures can evolve and what a tragedy it would be to lose them and with huge respect for all involved in bringing such vivid dance performance to us.

This is a great double bill from a great company and you should go and see it.