Selecting and ordering a mixed bill is an art in itself, as shown by the highly thoughtful arrangement here. It began with a sumptuously romantic Ashton piece, misty and swirling, the ballerinas' pastel ball gowns ballooning like floating thistle seeds when they were lowered from lifts. Despite a fall by one of the principal waltzers, which excited the audience's sympathy, and her quick and graceful recovery, which excited the audience's admiration, the piece was a delight; and it cleansed the palate for what followed.
      And what followed was the premiere of a striking piece by Alastair Marriott, whose developing artistry as a maker of dance ‚ everyone knows his achievements as a character performer in the company ‚ have until now mainly been confined to the Linbury and Clore stages. 'Tanglewood' surely marks a major choreographic talent coming of age. It is an essay in atmosphere, and at the same time shows a fine architectonic sense of shape, line, position and exchange using the infinite resources of the classic vocabulary and saying something new with them. Marriott had excellent material to work on in making this piece: from the stalls it seemed that Leanne Benjamin, Marin Harvey and Darcey Bussell understood his intentions, and in his turn he had known what to craft from their gifts.
      Through prior inattention this reviewer expected to see an old balletic rendition based on Hawthorne's 'Tanglewood Tales', so it was a double delight to be presented with a brand-new home-grown work, and one as good as this. In a galaxy lately thinned by the loss of some major choreographic talents, it is good to see another emerge with such elan.
      Anyone who wished to experience the astonishing range of Kenneth MacMillan's art would have been satisfied indeed by the difference between his two works presented in this bill. The haunting, disturbing, ambiguous and unhappy scenes of 'My Brother, My Sisters' merit the amount of Freudian ink poured upon them, while the expansive freedoms of 'Gloria', gloriously danced by Carlos Acosta, Alina Cojocaru, Thiago Soares and others of the company, could not offer a greater contrast ‚ despite the battlefield setting, representing all war though alluding most closely to the rear area of the First World War's trenches. Something surprisingly joyful sustains the mood in this otherwise muddied setting of strife; while in 'My Brother, My Sisters' the sinister and incestuous bleakness is relieved only momentarily by small flashes of fragmentary and quickly passing humour.
      In 'La Valse' the company's (not uncharacteristic) tendency to a lack of synchronisation was in evidence again, jumps and arm raises going off a trifle raggedly, like firecrackers on Guy Fawkes Night whose touchpaper has been lit nanoseconds apart. With music that provides easy cues for timing that should not happen too often. But the dancing was as full of pleasure and flow as ever; and elsewhere in the programme every movement was well-drilled and thought-through, fully realised, lacking nothing. With the vivid premiere of Marriott's new work, and the rich contrasts of MacMillan's genius, the result was an evening of fine ballet.
AC Grayling