It sounds like a crazed PR stunt, having the Institute of Physics invite Mark Baldwin to create a dance tribute to Einstein. But the basic concepts of physics - energy, space, time - are actually basic to dance as well. And from the start of Constant Speed it's clear that Baldwin is determined to make them scintillate.
The work embodies Einstein's theory that the key constant in the universe is the speed of light - and in lively obedience to this Baldwin's 19 dancers whizz around the stage like hyperactive molecules, restlessly changing pattern and speed. It may sound as if the predictable musical option ought to have been a composer like Pierre Boulez. Yet Baldwin has used the music of Franz Lehar, the operetta king and Einstein's contemporary - and it's an adorable, brilliant choice.
Instantly Lehar's music adds a sense of period innocence, fizz and grandeur to the piece and Baldwin exploits this by making his dancers deport themselves like showgirls and circus acrobats. As they sprint around the stage, gawkily graceful, earnestly blithe, they seem very touchingly mortal, only dimly aware of the inexorable laws that govern their little world.
It's a lovely piece, the first Baldwin has choreographed as Rambert's director - and the rest of the programme shows how inspired a job he's been doing. In Momenta, a new work by company dancer Mikaela Polley, Baldwin more than justifies his policy of encouraging home talent. To a tense, mercurial Patrick Nunn score, Polley unpacks a stream of sharply variegated dance from her cast of 10. It is luminously confident and well crafted.
Baldwin has also been paying attention to the classics, and to complement last year's masterly revival of Antony Tudor's Dark Elegies comes Judgment of Paris. In this deliciously sardonic retelling of the classical myth the rival goddesses are sullen, apathetic whores and Paris is a drunk.
It's an entertaining, sharp idea of just how wickedly squalid Tudor's comedy must have looked on the ballet stage of 1938.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 0870 737 7737
