Solo for Two - Osipova and Vasiliev

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev, the must-see couple of modern ballet present a programme of contemporary dance: 'Solo For Two', Coliseum 2014. Tickets still available.

Ballet loves a couple and the couple of the moment – Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev - join forces at the Coliseum with Solo For Two, a programme of contemporary works that will show London audiences a new and striking side to their famed partnership.

Known primarily for their bravura performances in the great Russian classics, few couples are more dynamic than Osipova and Vasiliev. The two Russians first came to notice at the Bolshoi – she had trained there, he in Ukraine. Individually, each was superb, but in partnership they were dynamite .

She is leggy, recklessly athletic, and strikingly beautiful with her heart-shaped face and Snow White colouring – raven hair and pale skin. He is rugged, chunky and built for the grandstanding Soviet repertory. The jumps in his signature role of Spartacus draw audible gasps.

A couple off stage as well as on it, they departed the Bolshoi when things began to turn ugly there, and joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet in St Petersburg. But the clamour for their appearances worldwide soon brought them west. Natalia is now a jewel in the crown of the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden. He is ensconced as a prized principal at American Ballet Theatre in New York, where she is a visiting principal too.

They are no longer engaged to be married, yet their stage partnership continues to flourish, as does their appetite for new repertoire.

The ex ballet couple dance Solo For Two, a Russian-produced programme at Coliseum, which goes head to head with the Mariinsky season at Covent Garden, surely a sign of supreme confidence in their ability to pull in the crowds.

It’s a triple bill that’s distinctly polyglot and contemporary in flavour. The evening opens with extracts from work by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Mea Culpa, set to baroque music by Heinrich Schütz and accompanied by l'Ensemble Akadêmia from France. Cherkaoui is known for his refined taste in music and his insistence on live performance, so this bodes well.

This is followed by Passo by the Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin (Gaga style creator and artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company), danced to music provided by the British electronic duo Autechre and to English traditional folk music.

The evening concludes with Facada by Arthur Pita, God's Garden extract (quite the flavour of the moment, to judge by his choreographic credits around town) adapted specially for Natalia and Ivan from his ensemble piece. The accompanying original music and traditional fado will be played live.

As The Guardian wrote: “We're getting used to expecting the extraordinary from Natalia Osipova – and then getting some more.”

“All eyes are on Ivan Vasiliev,” said the Evening Standard.