The Royal's latest programme plays a game of cat's cradle with history. With Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun reinventing Nijinsky's pagan modernism as a cool 1950s dream, and with Balanchine's Ballet Imperial refracting the grandeur of the Tsars though 20th century technique, this is an evening in which threads between the past and present cross and re-cross in increasingly compelling patterns.
The history game is hard to excel at, however, and in the court of Ballet Imperial, only some of the Royal's dancers look convincingly regal. When Balanchine aims for magnificence, he does it by sculpting large effects and by etching unexpected jewelled flourishes into the choreography's surface. This requires speed from the dancers as well as scale and authority, but on Saturday, it was an elusive goal. Zenaida Yanowsky danced well but her body seemed a bad fit for the steps; Rupert Pennefather's big, bounding technique looked, as always, full of promise, but still too much the eager puppy. And it was only Darcey Bussell in the ballerina role whose grandly unfurling limbs and tender regard made us believe she danced the ballet by divine right.
If Bussell owned Ballet Imperial, Carlos Acosta owned Faun. The fact that he's so recently danced the 1912 original helps us to see how Robbins' update - a young man practicing in front of a ballet mirror - can embody the arrogance and innocence of Nijinksy's wild faun. Lost in his own narcissism, Acosta was both touching and mesmerising. However the mood wasn't sustained when he was joined by Sarah Lamb, appealingly waif-like but without a jolt of electricity to bring to their mutual trance. And there was another lesson in the importance of chemistry in Faun's companion piece, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (more history on speed). While Frederico Bonelli opened himself up to this virtuoso challenges like a ship in full sail, Alexandra Ansanelli's sharp, sweet dancing failed to embrace his recklessness.
Finally to The Firebird, the ballet in which Diaghilev delivered ancient Russia to the world, repackaged as blazing modernism. Disappointingly the orchestra failed to live up to the work's 1910 daring. It was left to Leanne Benjamin flaring her own heroic course as the Firebird to ratchet up the stage magic, partnered by Edward Watson, who in his debut as Ivan Tsarevich, found his own convincing way into the ballet. His Ivan was a classic folk hero; a cocky dumb boy who was forced to become a man.
· In rep until March 8. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
