Zenaida Yanowsky was given only one performance to dance with Kenneth Greve, the partner brought over from Denmark to be her guest Prince in Swan Lake. All we knew about Greve was that he was one of the few men tall enough to partner Yanowsky in a full-length classic. The matinee also revealed him to be intensely responsive, allowing his partner to portray an Odette/ Odile unique both to her body and her remarkable dramatic intelligence.
As Odette she was magnificent as well as poignant - using the powerful arch of her long back to register the tragedy of Odette's cruel entrapment. She portrayed with unusual vividness the role's dual aspect - in some moments her Odette was evidently a woman, sleepwalking through Von Rothbart's malign dream, at others she was a panicked wild bird flinching from Siegfried's tentative advance. In both guises Yanowsky showed Odette to be so far removed from the real world that during most of the second act she was unable to look at Siegfried. When she did the emotional, erotic impact was breathtaking.
Yanowsky's technique boasted moments of fizzing (and occasionally forced) virtuosity but her interpretative choices were exciting. As Odile she heard the music differently (her flashily end-stopped phrases were like involuntary cries of triumph) and even looked different. Unlike the palely abstracted Odette, her Odile beamed with deadly radiance, her face suffused with a rosy triumph.
But it was in the last act that Yanowsky was most singular, revealing a passionately wilful heroine who, having chosen her own death, will fight to save the man she loves. As she scaled the cathartic climax of Tchaikovsky's score we saw Odette not as passive victim but as the feisty woman she would have been in real life.
Greve clearly loved dancing with Yanowsky, and he was her charismatic equal. With his perfect manners, deft jumps and guilelessly open torso he was a textbook Prince. His quick, ardent responses also revealed a smart and emotional acting talent. Not only will Yanowsky fight to have Greve back in London, so should everyone watching them.
· In rep until January 25. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
