Age may have nudged Irek Mukhamedov out of the biggest classical roles open to him but it certainly hasn't stopped him being a star. Even though the 39-year-old has been demoted to guest principal with the Royal Ballet, he can still give himself top billing with his own temporary company, performing at Sadler's Wells this week. Here he not only gets to pick his own roles, but also to choose the cast and repertoire - and it has to be said he does an impressive job.
The opening number, Class Concert, has been re-arranged by Mukhamedov to display the high-powered talent he's grouped around himself, a mix of Royal Ballet and Russian dancers including the great Kirov ballerina Altynai Asylmuratova. All of them look sleek and relaxed in this partypiece and all get to show off their skills, though Mukhamedov takes the prize in a display of aerial fireworks almost as stupendous as those he used to deliver in his glory days. He knows how good he is, and his grin of helpless self-congratulation provokes a roar of delight and affection from his public.
But the show meticulously avoids the trap of endless So viet-style curtain calls, and Class segues smoothly into two Russian period pieces before getting to the climax of the first half - Asylmuratova and Mukhamedov performing Roland Petit's erotic, combative duet, Bolero. From the moment the dancers stalk onto the floodlit stage like boxers into a ring, the piece strains to whip us into starstruck delirium. The dancers deliver the goods with Asylmuratova as taut and deadly as a cobra and Mukhamedov as dangerously powered as a bull. As they posture and grapple the crowd go wild, and only a grumpy few of us mourn the waste of such artistry in such trashily empty effects.
The show's second half is more substantial, opening with Petipa's Carnival in Venice, performed by Natalia Ogneva and Johan Kobborg with delicious aplomb. Ashley Page's Quartet orchestrates a wittily sexy standoff between two couples and if Bournonville's delicately drawn La Sylphide is almost too great a historical lurch, it's justified by the eerily exquisite dancing of Lilia Musarova
The stars round off the event in William Tuckett's jazzy duet... when angels fly... Asylmuratova looks technically underused but she sashays and flirts with knock-out charm and Mukhamedov seems to burn from the force field of his own energy. It's his party, and he'll dance if he wants to. Probably for the next 20 years judging by his current form.
Until October 23. Box office: 0171-863 8000
