Last week saw the eagerly anticipated UK premiere of Russian choreographer Radu Poklitaru’s reworking of Romeo and Juliet, produced by British opera and theatre director, Declan Donnellan. And the sooner this misconceived mess goes back to Moscow – and stays there – the better.

No matter how hard they try, the Russians just don’t get it when it comes to modern dance. For them the genre means crudity in content while obsessively dissecting classical ballet steps. Last Monday the brilliant Bolshoi dancers twitched and jerked like severed frog’s legs, light years away from any sort of natural dance language. Donnellan’s heavy handed imposition of operatic production values on the art of dance veers between cheap West Side Story and impenetrable Der Freischutz (an opera even its composer, Carl von Weber, never understood). Ironically the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra under Boris Klinichev played Prokofiev’s score with startling clarity and juicy passion. What were Poklitaru and Donnellan listening to, apart from their own egos?

Luckily for us, this week the Bolshoi resumes normal service, doing what it does best – Swan Lake. Any doubts about the company’s return to glory after the tumultuous past decade are swept away in a triumph of quality in dancing, staging and artistry.

Though Svetlana Zakharova’s tragic Swan Queen is as cold as ice, her lover, and betrayer, Andrei Uvarov as Siegfried, is tall, blond and so laid back that sometimes when he jumps he can’t be bothered to come back down again. Whether in the dazzle of Simon Virsaladze’s gold and black pillared castle or the eerie night glow of the lakeside, the company’s schooling and discipline mark all the dancers as thoroughbreds in a noble art. Maria Allash as a courtly friend in Siegfried’s first act birthday party, and later a would be bride, redefines the word style and the flock of over 30 swans, each an individual artist but creating an identifiable whole, justifies the Bolshoi Ballet’s claims of greatness. If you are a dance lover, don’t miss this one.