Balletic cobwebs blown away

Guinea pigs or fledgelings? What would they be? That was the question everyone asked when Ballet Boyz Michael Nunn and William Trevitt announced they were having a crack at choreography.

With their handicam larks and sensational duets, the onetime Opera House dancers have blown away the balletic cobwebs, and thank goodness for that. But they've done it with first-division dance makers (Russell Maliphant, Christopher Wheeldon, etc) rather than DIY. Why risk the winning formulae?

The reason is their Channel 4 show, The Rough Guide To Choreography, a four-part series about the black art of dance making. The Boyz ask what it is and how it works, and to illustrate their answers they made their own piece, which premiered at Saturday's one-off at the Barbican.

The evening was a fab event but Maliphant, Wheeldon et al will lose no sleep, at least not yet. Choreographed by Trevitt and overseen by Nunn, Follow was a serious study of intimacy and solitude, with its steps carefully planned.

There were two duets, the first, danced by Oxana Panchenko and Hubert Essakow, was less assured than the second, which was an intense miniature in emotional closeness. Monica Zamora and Nunn himself couldn't let each other go, their hands tight, their arms close, even while the flying lines of their legs suggested a parallel longing to escape.

Also part of the programme was Christopher's Wheeldon's Mesmerics and Russell Maliphant's Torsion. Both are excellent, although it's Maliphant that stops you in your tracks.

Forget princes and swains, Torsion asks questions about the competitiveness of male friendship, as well as its unspoken affection. It is confident and completely contemporary, with some stunning lifts and balances, which segue into the rolling, downy-soft moves of capoeira.

Special mention to Iestyn Edwards, a fat bloke in a tutu (and former Opera House usher) whose stand-up routine affectionately mocks ballet's up-tight divas.

His jokes are spot-on, and his dancing nowhere near as bad as you'd expect from a flat-footed lard arse. Edwards also does a brilliant discobonkers routine in a turquoise Lycra unitard and plaited head band with seaweed tendrils. He is essential viewing.

The final part of The Rough Guide to Choreography: Saturday, C4, 7pm.