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A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
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Sarah Frater's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Monica Mason.
Cast: The Royal Ballet
Description: Flemming Flindt's interpretation of Eugene Ionesco's The Lesson is performed along with Glen Tetley's Voluntaries, and a new work by resident choreographer Wayne McGregor.
Trains: Tube: Covent Garden 
Phone: 0207304 4000
Website: www.roh.org.uk
Email: onlinebooking@roh.org.uk
Extra info: Air Conditioning, Food
Tip-top dancers: Eric Underwood and Melissa Hamilton in Infra
Watching The Royal Ballet dance Wayne McGregor is like stroking a cat the wrong way. The dancers are usually flattered by steps that refine their form but McGregor roughs up their elegant harmonies, something that snagged him the job of the Royal’s resident choreographer after the success of his Chroma in 2006.
That was lush by McGregor’s acerbic standards, with votive-candle-like lighting and cathedral-like space. Joby Talbot’s Bond-glamorous compositions augmented its velvety plush. A double gear change then to his new Infra, with a set like iron filings and police camera lighting.
Unlike Chroma where the dancers are anonymous, Infra’s six pairs are conspicuously couples, most unhappy. This works less well, as McGregor’s extreme articulations and juddering disjunctures are a limited means of revealing character. The “crowd” scene is best not mentioned.
This is not helped by Julie Opie’s installation. The stage-wide, high-up band of dot-matrix panels display promenading urbanites in roundy stick form, like the diagrammatic figures on the Tube’s “priority seat” signs. This is slim pickings by Opera House standards, a visual jingle that McGregor is way above.
The other problem is that his series of duets don’t feel like a fully-formed ballet, although the dancers are tip-top (the BBC was filming for a special broadcast this month and we all know how cameras magic up standards).
No need for the occult in The Lesson, Flemming Flindt’s unnerving ballet about a dance teacher who murders his pretty young pupils. Yohan Kobborg is losing the technique we all raved about but his acting knocks spots. His eyes alone convey the teacher’s prurient pleasure and knotted guilt.
A perky Roberta Marquez and unrecognisable Laura Morera complete the desperate trio.
Quick mention of young heart-throb Sergei Polunin in Glen Tetley’s punishing Voluntaries whose mood the Royal didn’t quite catch. Also, the potential partnership of Marianela Nuñez and Rupert Pennefather. The pair are visually well matched (same colouring, same musculature), only he needs work. Some of his lifts were fluffed and his steps unfinished.
In rep until 26 November. Information: 020 7304 4000, www.roh.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
