Night of pure passion

After the sexually-charged, morphine-fuelled traumas of Kenneth MacMillan's Mayerling, the Royal Ballet returns to the much safer territory of his Romeo and Juliet. Instead of the drugaddled, syphilis-riddled Crown Prince Rudolf and his incestuous coven of mother, wife and mistress, we have Shakespeare's young lovers and their brief moment of bliss.

Romeo is a familiar ballet. The Royal dances it all the time, as does every other troupe on the planet, but when it is done well it is not quite as safe as it seems. MacMillan's version faithfully describes the feuding Capulets and Montagues, and then he reminds us of our parallel fascinations with romantic abandon and dying young. We want love to transform us, it seems, and we don't want to get old.

These themes ran right out at you last night when Alina Cojocaru opened the Royal's current run of the ballet. The Romanian-born ballerina is small and frail looking, and her Juliet initially followed suit. Roberto Bolle was her Romeo, a tall, muscular dancer much bigger than her usual partner, Johan Kobborg.

The effect was to bring out a more intense quality to Cojocaru's dancing.

With Bolle's size and strength she could really fling herself around, moving with an ease that evoked the speed and spontaneity of her passion. Talking of passion, there was some very real snogging going on, a glorious unhindered embrace in Act I's balcony scene, and then a clinging, clawing bruising in Act III's bedroom duet.

Cojocaru has visibly matured in the past year. When she joined the Royal Ballet in 1999, no one doubted her dancing, although her acting was polite rather than impassioned. However, she has recently danced stunning Manons and Mayerlings, and now a lovedup Juliet, in turn impetuous and bold, and then frantic and furious as events begin to turn. She also does good dead.

Bolle was never much of an actor, and he is no team player (many of his group scenes fuzzed to invisibility so little cohesion did he convey). However, his leaps are such fabulous mating calls we all hurry to reply.

In repertory until 12 April. Information: 020 7304 4000.

The Royal Ballet: Romeo And Juliet