It would take a spectacularly clod-footed cast to give a bad performance of Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardée - so expert is the ballet's construction that it is almost dancer-proof. But at the same time, the choreography is so rich in emotional and comic possibilities that very good performers can find very different ways of making the ballet work.
With Carlos Acosta and Marianela Nuñez, Fille moves on a straight, joyous line from barnyard to bed. From their first snatched kiss it is clear that these shiningly healthy lovers won't suffer a second's doubt about their destiny - just as the dancers themselves do not betray a moment's hesitation in their performance. Nuñez, dancing Lise for the first time, has never looked so blithe. Her poised, clean-limbed technique darts with radiant certainty through Ashton's choreography and she knows her Lise intimately - a sexy farm girl with a dreaming heart. Acosta, as Colas, couldn't be a sexier hook for any girl's day dreams but while he uses every bravura challenge to flirt outrageously with the audience, he never lets you doubt that the true, lusty focus of his interest is Lise.
Theirs is a hard act to follow but Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg do so by giving a radically alternative reading. Essentially their lovers are much more innocent, dancing their opening duets with a pulse of uncertainty and a ragged catch in their breath. But the general effect of their performance is different too. They sparkle with a finer, more old-fashioned detail, highlighting the subtler jokes and the emotional nuance. Their dancing is all etched and angled particulars - especially that of Cojocaru, whose tiny, articulate body seems to refract both light and music as she moves.
Both casts are exceptional but the treat of the season is William Tuckett's Widow Simone. The role is, crudely, one huge mother-in-law joke - part shrew, part pantomime dame. But Tuckett also shows the dotty anarchy and daft, hopeful tenderness that ramble around the old lady's heart. For many Ashton fans the essence of his choreography lies in its unreconstructed, often eccentric, romanticism. Tuckett, one of the most intelligent and imaginative of character dancers, puts this ballet movingly in touch with its choreographer's spirit.
· In rep until April 2. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
