Triple thrill

After a few thematically uneven mixed programmes, the Royal Ballet takes its summer leave from the Royal Opera House with a nearly ideal triptych of works. Central to it are stunning examples of 20th-century choreography, which highlight the role that British ballet played in both making and consolidating the Western modern ballet tradition. As such, this triple bill comes across as more connoisseur-oriented than a flashy crowd pleaser. Balletomanes still get their fair share of starry dancing, though, for each work provides the principals with plenty of chances to shine.

At the first performance, Lauren Cuthbertson and Sergei Polunin thrilled in Frederick Ashton’s Scènes de Ballet. Polunin negotiated the fascinating intricacies of the abstract choreography with an invigorating mix of panache and perfect aplomb, sailing marvellously through the sometimes quirky, if slightly unflattering ideas Ashton often created for his male dancers. Cuthbertson, for her part, looked absolutely perfect in the central solo this ballet is deservedly famous for. Despite some detectable nervous tension here and there, her rendition was a masterclass in what the often mourned English style ought to be. The corps de ballet, too, looked almost perfectly attuned to what remains one of Ashton’s most intriguing ballets, a quintessentially British take on Stravinsky’s music.

Although Glen Tetley was born and grew up artistically in the US, the influence of the British ballet tradition that he encountered while training with Antony Tudor is easily identifiable in many of his works. Voluntaries, to Poulenc’s haunting organ concerto, is an essay in abstract ballet-making that still stands out for the sense of uplifting mysticism that underpins the multifaceted choreographic ideas. Some might find the shining unitards and the pointillist/psychedelic set a tad too Seventies, but the seamless choreographic layout is timelessly inventive.