You get the sense that the Royal's new bill, Enduring Images, has been programmed to look both current, and classic. Its choreographic pairing of Nacho Duato and William Forsythe is undeniably modern - all the work shown is less than 15 years old.
But the evening's excitement only simmers intermittently. Just as none of the ballets are strictly cutting edge, so I am not sure we will be queuing to see them in 100 years.
Duato's Por vos Muero, (the only new acquisition) is like an abstract of social dance history, set to Spanish music of the 16th century. Its long middle section celebrates dance as communal ritual with cloaked religious figures whirling through incense and aristocrats showing off elegant ballroom figures.
But framing these are two sections which enclose the dancers in a more intimate, taut vocabulary. Dance is here the language of love and solitude, and fragments of poetry spliced with the musical score hint at the privacy of its expression.
Duato's talent is for image making and, like his mentor Jiri Kylian, he twines his dancers into shapes which are far stranger and more beautiful than the actual sum of their limbs. He also has a gift for spinning these body sculptures into long, supple musical structures.
Por vos Muero is a big work which impressively fills the stage. But there is an opportunistic feel to its effects - its does not get under the skins of the people who dance it, nor of the transforming energy of dance itself.
The short, athletic male trio Remanso is also full of images which strike the eye but do not settle far into the mind. As a virtuoso showcase, gift wrapped with jokes, it does give audiences a gentle hit of adrenalin and allows its dancers to swagger in comradely style.
Forsythe's The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude is even briefer but it may prove to have the longest shelflife. Not only does it goad its five dancers to fearless acts of brilliance (the women in Monday's cast out-glittered the men) but it is a wickedly smart celebration of the classicism with which Fosythe has been arguing for so long.
In the middle, somewhat elevated, is famously part of that argument. Though some of the Royal have not yet got the hang of Fosythe's style, mistaking posturing for pure power, Darcey Bussell consumed the central role with a fierce, glorious precision, Zenaida Yanowsky was sweetly wired and Johan Kobborg raced against dazzling demons.
It's time, however, that Forsythe agreed to a change in costume design - the dancers' slutty tights and Lycra leotards look straight out of a tarts' disco.
· In rep until March 20. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
