National Ballet of Cuba

Magia da la Danza is meant to be a glittering shop window for the Cuban ballet – a parade of duets and ensembles from the company's most popular repertory. As a format, it's ideal for showing the depth of talent across the company ranks. But, with all the material choreographed or staged by director Alicia Alonso, the effect is to underline the artistic straitjacket within which the Cubans have been dancing for the last half-century. The evening starts off promisingly, with the act two pas de deux from Giselle. It comes framed with an ensemble of spectral, murderous Wilis, but Annette Delgado and Javier Torres need no narrative context, plunging straight into the piercing poignancy of a love duet danced beyond the grave. Delgado's delicately moulded phrasing, contained within the elegant ardour of Torres, makes you wish you were seeing the ballet in its entirety. But we're whisked straight from Giselle to the faux grandeur of Sleeping Beauty and then on to Nutcracker, Coppélia, and so on. And, as one extract follows another, it becomes clear what a heavy hand Alonso has had in staging this material. Ironing out most of the stylistic grace notes, ignoring the logic of the music, Alonso seems intent on cramming each pas de deux with the same handful of tricks: whipping top pirouettes, and balances that look set in cement. It's as if Alonso wants every number to be Don Quixote. And while this ballet's pas de deux is danced to barnstorming effect by Viengsay Valdés and guest partner Carlos Acosta, it is typical of an evening that is all about the circus and little about the magic. Whatever the future brings, these wonderful Cubans deserve new and subtler challenges.