People talk about good ballets and bad ones but the real difference is between the casts. A mismatched pair will leave the best choreography looking flat, while dancers who physically and artistically click can transform almost any steps. Lots of dancers perform together yet few are partnerships that turn a ballet into something you can’t forget.

And that’s pretty much the story with Johan Kobborg and Leanne Benjamin, who opened The Royal Ballet’s run of Manon at the Opera House on Saturday. Kobborg normally dances with Alina Cojocaru, and their partnership needs no more laurels from me. However, Cojocaru is injured (as is Sarah Lamb), so Leanne Benjamin was the late substitute. She’s able and intelligent, yet she hasn’t danced with Kobborg enough to turn Kenneth MacMillan’s biggie into something great.

Manon is a risk-taker’s ballet. There has to be abandon in the duets MacMillan created for Manon and her lover Des Grieux. Without it, it’s just a boy-loses-girl story, rather than one of moral corruption. You have to see the pair unravel and for that the dancers have to know each other. Kobborg and Benjamin don’t, or not well enough.

That said, Kobborg and Benjamin were on good form, with their acting strong. There’s a moment in Act II when Des Grieux confronts Manon in the brothel, and she gestures to her diamonds and pearls. “Match these” you almost hear her say. It’s a desperate moment, and Kobborg is visably crushed by what she asks. Benjamin is also chilling when her brother (Viacheslav Samodurov) and Monsieur GM (Christopher Saunders) pass her between them. This is a woman who enjoys the power of her beauty and thrills to male attention, be it from a blood relation or an old man with money.

In rep until 27 November
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