Generically, La Bayadère ranks alongside the great moonlit tragedies of the repertory. Like Swan Lake and Giselle, the ballet's poetry is consummated at night, its heroine is exquisitely marked for death and its hero torn haplessly between two loves. Yet, on this occasion, the ballet's casting gave Bayadère an unusually robust spin.
Coincidentally, the three main characters were all danced by Latinos - and their chemistry turned the familiarly fatal love triangle into a spirited power struggle. Nikiya, the low-caste temple dancer may be doomed from her first entrance, but Tamara Rojo has her fighting every inch of the way. Even in appearance Rojo is more credibly feisty than the average Nikiya. Her rounded limbs bring an opulent seductiveness to Petipa's faux oriental choreography and, when she's forced to perform at Gamzatti and Solor's betrothal party, her wilful, sexy dancing shows that Nikiya is as pissed as hell. The love duets that she has previously danced with Solor (Carlos Acosta) have told us why. Rojo and Acosta are always good together but, in Bayadère, they dance with a risk-taking rush of adrenaline that joyously declares their status as lovers.
In dramatic contrast Acosta's dancing with the steely-hearted Gamzatti (Marianela Nunez) is a baiting competition. Acosta will seize any chance to show off his fabulous tricks, but his virtuosity in the betrothal pas de deux serves as a chilling foil to Nunez's own. Nunez can confidently hold her own against Acosta, and slaps down each perfectly timed fouette, each flaunting extension as a promise that Gamzatti will be taming her reluctant fiance.
The defiantly earthy register of the principals' dancing could pose a risk to the stylistic balance of Bayadere, but Rojo in particular ensures that its classicism gets due weight. In the Shades act, her dancing becomes, visibly more abstract but shaped with a pure academic logic. And here she was pleasingly framed by the chorus of ghostly bayadères, dancing with a collective stylistic belief. La Bayadère seemed to me a dull choice with which to open the Royal Opera House's new season. These dancers proved me wrong.
· In rep until November 13. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
