Fusion and confusion

One of the last times Mark Morris performed in London, he forgot to wear his knickers. The occasion was a cabaret event at the Brick Lane Music Hall and the American choreographer danced in nothing but a night shirt, revealing more than anyone thought possible.

Morris was more modestly dressed last night when he took his bow at the Opera House. He had travelled to London for the British premier of Gong, his Gamelan-influenced piece and the first of his work to be danced by the Royal Ballet.

Superficially, Gong looks straightforward. Morris takes Colin McPhee's Indonesian-inspired music and creates Balinese-flavoured dances, ballet moves with Asian accents. The women dance on their toes and make crisply defined lines, then use palms-together, prayer-like gestures and hold their arms like lopsided pagodas. The costumes have a similar East-West mix, with catwalk king Isaac Mizrahi dressing the women in brilliantly coloured tutus, Asian earrings and anklets.

However, the costumes have a surreal quality that makes us uneasy. Some tutus are micro short, more peplums than tutus, while the men's earrings seem over-sized. Perhaps Gong is not the easy East-West fusion it first appears. The dancers add to the mystery: serene and ceremonial, they feel remote and anonymous with neither Alina Cojocaru nor Darcey Bussell immediately recognisable.

Gong pleases as a colour-saturated piece of dance (Michael Chybowski's lighting is sensational), but it also satisfies at a more serious level. Its strangeness and air of mystery hints at the rituals that underpin both Asian and European dance and, of course, their religions.

Whether the Royal should be dancing Morris, rather than, say, the home-gown Ashton or MacMillan, is a question everyone asks. Former Royal Ballet director Ross Stretton thought it should, and, during his brief tenure, added all sorts of newcomers to the rep. That includes Mats Ek, the Swedish dance maker whose controversial Carmen the Royal also performed last night.

Carmen proved hugely popular with the audience, who cheered far harder for Sylvie Guillem and Jonathan Cope than they did for Cope and Bussell in Christopher Wheeldon's Tryst. The Royal Ballet-trained, New York City Balletbased Wheeldon is a rapidly rising star, but Tryst felt unexpectedly acidic next to Carmen and Gong.

Royal Ballet Triple Bill in repertory until 6 November. Box office: 020 7304 4000.

Royal Ballet Triple Bill