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A Sentimental Journey
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Green Zone
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London,
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Description: Contrasting bill featuring Balanchine's Serenade, Ashton's Rhapsody and William Tuckett's Turn Of The Screw.
Trains: Tube: Covent Garden 
Phone: 0207304 4000
Website: www.roh.org.uk
Email: onlinebooking@roh.org.uk
Extra info: Air Conditioning, Food
Edward Watson and Alina Cojocaru perform their key duet
No one ever doubted Alina Cojocaru was a very special ballerina, but many feared her restraint and delicacy might mean she only ever paddled the emotional shallows rather than dived the sensuous depths.
In Chroma she is a woman transformed. The abstract ballet is the work of Wayne McGregor, the British choreographer best known for his ferocious angularity and wormlike contortions.
Hardly a style for the refined ballerina, you'd think, or one to reveal emotional intensity. In Chroma, Cojocaru masters both.
In the key duet with Edward Watson, she transmutes the corkscrewing shoulders, the struggling head, the arching back into elegy and lament. What hook is she on, you wonder. What hooks have we?
The new Chroma is exceptionally well judged. The 30-minute piece for 10 dancers is sombre and playful in turn, with the flesh-coloured costumes evoking an intense humanity, and the stunning "infinity" set by architect John Pawson both revealing the dancers and immersing the audience. Lucy Carter's votive candle-like lighting intensifies the effect.
In Joby Talbot, McGregor has chosen a musical collaborator of equal flair. The young Brit has created a score that alternates Bond-esque orchestrations of White Stripes tracks with his own tranquil chamber pieces. Setting the Cojocaru duet to his Transit of Venus is pleasingly appropriate.
The drawback is that McGregor's style doesn't suit all. Sarah Lamb, Eric Underwood and Steven McRae thrive on his shrapnel moves, but Ludovic Ondiviela and Jonathan Watkins are less assured, and Tamara Rojo is ill served. The same goes for almost everyone in Danse à grand vitesse (DGV), the second new piece of the program this time by Christopher Wheeldon. The British choreographer rarely puts a foot wrong.
In DGV, almost nothing goes right. The huge, abstract ballet is set to music Michael Nyman composed for a French train company. It has pace and energy - and monotony in spades. Ditto the choreography. Moreover, the costumes do no favours, and the set is a sub-Frank Gehry series of giant mesh waves the dancers squeeze between. An unexpected disappointment.
• In rep until 29 November (020 7304 4000)
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
