LONDON: The Mikhailovsky Ballet returns to London where they have built up an enthusiastic following and looking at other theatre bookings, it seems they are also poaching audiences from our regular companies.

This season saw the return of blockbusters, Don Quixote and Laurencia as well as works from current director Nacho Duato. The season opened on a romantic note with Giselle and a world class performance from Natalia Osipova. Nikita Dolgushin’s production is in the traditional mould shaped around the ballerina.

Osipova is a Romantic ideal, all porcelain delicacy, her huge trusting eyes marking her out for tragedy. Her mad scene is understated as she quietly drifts into madness and her second act is a dream. She hovers over the stage, her feet shimmering like fireflies and floating in a cloud of tulle in the big lifts.

Ivan Vasiliev, a buoyant Basilio rather than a noble Albrecht, is not ideally cast. His man servant sternly drawing attention to the ring finger to remind him of his commitments and leaves the audience in no doubt that he is a cad. He is redeemed however in his brief virtuoso moments and his partnering is superb. And as this is Giselle’s ballet; the balance works.

The corps de ballet of Wilis were so perfect, they appeared genuinely supernatural. The lines and spacing could not be faulted and their lines of arabesques were breathtaking in their beauty. They were led by Ekaterina Borchenko as the Queen of the Wilis who added her own faultless arabesque and a rock steady balance. And a mention also for the lovely Sabina Yapparova who, together with Anton Ploom, delivered the Act 1 peasant pas de deux with crisp, clean technique and great charm.

London ballet audiences are notoriously conservative and when a Russian company comes to town they expect the classics. Predictably the two programmes of Duato’s own choreography fared less well at the box office. Multiplicity: Forms of Silence and Emptiness is contemporary in movement and design (a brilliant scaffolding set by Jaffar Chalabi) but located in the 18th century.

Marat Shemiunov who portrays Bach is a consistent and forceful presence; he ‘conducts’ the ensemble and conjures sweet music from the body of his muse, Yapparova. She is one who fully adapts to Duato’s style finding clarity in the positions and fluidity in the movements.

It was also a treat to see Leonid Sarafanov back in London. He was outstanding in this work which has a great deal to offer the men, particularly in the darker second half. In the opening men’s section reminiscent of Castrati, Sarafanov is singled out in a passionate and angry solo. The work is well balanced between soloists and ensemble, light and dark and while the company did not always fully engage with the stylistic challenges it was a worthwhile work to revisit.