Acosta Danza’s Spectrum at the Linbury Theatre — five works glide by smoothly

Having headlined hundreds of galas and mixed bills during his 28-year ballet career, Carlos Acosta knows more than most about the smooth running of a dance programme. Spectrum, his latest show for Acosta Danza, the contemporary Cuban company he founded in 2015, runs very smoothly, the five works gliding by with minimal interruption. Having performed alongside the finest — in Paris, London, New York, Moscow — Acosta is also a mean judge of danceflesh and his 10 artists are superb, but his choreographic choices — two of them European premieres — are mostly underwhelming. A disappointing use of a fine ensemble.

The opener is Performance by US dancemaker Micaela Taylor set to a grab-bag soundtrack matching Debussy’s Clair de Lune (yes, again) with a number by German sound artist AGF which made repeated use of a short, baffling lyric by Afghan poet and activist Kubra Khademi pondering the nature of performance. Unison routines are alternated with snatched solos showcasing the tremendous facility of individual artists who peel away from the pack to deliver a slippery pirouette or a sudden weightless handspring.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s 2009 Faun riffs on the 1912 original, but Cherkaoui’s creature is a wary, uncertain being, with none of the unsettling, voyeuristic habits of Nijinsky’s woodland onanist. Léon Bakst’s original designs are swapped for a projected backdrop of tree trunks with suitably leafy lighting. Debussy’s sublime 10 minutes are stretched to 15 thanks to some unwelcome percussive embellishments by Nitin Sawhney. Alejandro Silva, coached by the role’s creator Daniel Proietto, drifts through boneless solos, collapsing and rising as if at the mercy of an unseen puppeteer. His lonely reverie is interrupted by Zeleidy Crespo’s earthy and unsubmissive nymph and the pair enjoy a scuttling, gymnastic exchange on the forest’s ferny floor. Crespo, a spellbinding presence, is sadly underused in this programme.

The second half kicked off with the European premiere of Juanjo Arqués’s Portal, an ensemble crowd-pleaser for seven dancers in shipwreck-chic set to an electronic score by Cuban/Iranian combo Ariwo. Arqués seeks to capture the soul of Cuba — “an island of contrasts” — and his movement language combines Afro-Cuban rhythmic struts, an elastic solo for Raúl Reinoso and some decidedly dated pairwork, including our old friend the woman-as-mop motif, whereby men drag their partners around by the leg.

Nosotros is a queasily gymnastic duet by Beatriz García and Raúl Reinoso billed, gulp, as “an intimate journey into couples”. Splendid Laura Rodríguez plays dominatrix, kicking Mario Sergio Elías into position with her outstretched leg before engaging in some extended floorplay and a lot of split lifts.

The finale was a revival of 2015’s jazzy Alrededor No Hay Nada (literally: “There’s nothing around”) by Spanish dancemaker Goyo Montero. The five-couple up-tempo piece is set to lyrics by Joaquín Sabina and Brazilian diplomat/poet Vinicius de Moraes (co-writer of the immortal “The Girl from Ipanema”). This quality soundtrack is clearly central to the concept and a cribsheet would have been nice, but the 15 minutes fly by, supercharged by the skill and energy of Acosta’s remarkable dancers.

★★★☆☆

To January 29, roh.org.uk