Ashton Divertissements, Royal Opera House, London

Neglected Ashton revived with a fresh spirit

There are only three more performances of this bill, so hurry. The Royal Ballet's Frederick Ashton bill has two great ballets and a gorgeous clutch of divertissement numbers. Best of all, the company looks at home with its founder choreographer.

There are only three more performances of this bill, so hurry. The Royal Ballet's Frederick Ashton bill has two great ballets and a gorgeous clutch of divertissement numbers. Best of all, the company looks at home with its founder choreographer.

Since the 1990s, Ashton's ballets had been neglected, often rusty in performance. In his centenary year, the Royal Ballet is dancing Ashton with new confidence and happiness.

Those divertissements are the real news of this programme. With Devil's Holiday, we're seeing dances from a ballet Ashton himself never saw. He made it in 1939 for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. The London premiere was cancelled when war was declared.

Frederic Franklin, from that 1939 cast, has reconstructed two dances, both fresh and bright. The man's solo is all unfurling lines, with swooning falls to his knees. In the duet, the lovers float and slide, bending to right and left. It's all fresh and bright, danced well by two casts. Laura Morera and Martin Harvey are softest, most spontaneous; at the evening performance, Isabel McMeekan and Viacheslav Samodurov were more emphatic. The Awakening pas de deux, which Ashton added to The Sleeping Beauty, is another rarity. This ravishing dance, set to Tchaikovsky's lush entr'acte music, is full of mirrored steps, call and response. As the couple walk forward, they both dip, stretching one foot behind. In that little halt, they look regal and tender, vulnerable to love. Darcey Bussell was radiant with Jonathan Cope at the matinee. Jaimie Tapper, a smaller dancer, made a great impact in the sissonne lifts: Federico Bonelli throws her into the air, windblown, and draws her quickly back.

The Thaïs pas de deux is revived more often, but I've never seen it better danced. Sarah Lamb's bourrées are dreamily smooth; she and Bonelli flow through this perfumed duet. In the evening, Thiago Soares partnered Mara Galeazzi as if she were a vision.

The one disappointment was the Isadora solo. Ashton made his Five Brahms Waltzes in the manner of Isadora Duncan, for Lynn Seymour. Ashton's steps ebb and flow, but Tamara Rojo keeps breaking the current. Her dancing is all on the surface. But as a whole, the ballet looks and sounds wonderful and Barry Wordsworth conducts a fine performance.

In repertory until 25 November. Box office 020 7304 4000