Sandwiched between these ballets is “Against the Tide,” a world premiere and the second Royal Ballet commission for Cathy Martson following 2020’s “The Cellist,” about the prodigious Jacqueline du Pré. Her new work appears to follow another embattled musician: Benjamin Britten, the British composer and committed pacifist who left England for North America with his lover, Peter Pears, in 1939 – the same year he finished Violin Concerto (Marston’s choice of score here) and England joined the Second World War. I say ‘appears’ because the narrative is light-touch, without a plot or named characters. All the same, it’s thematically loaded, enriched by Britten’s searing music and the elements of his biography seemingly threaded through, including his sexuality.

Water-beaten stone steps arc across the stage, our first allusion to the titular theme, while men dance a martial language of clenched fists and jutting shoulders, arms drawn like archers. William Bracewell, dressed in baby blue, resists their call-to-arms, and the theme comes closer into view. A sensual encounter with Matthew Ball draws out another shade. Ball is beautiful and roguish from his first step down the stairs, like a fallen angel or a neighbourhood scamp. We immediately know he’s about to make things interesting. 

Bracewell inhabits a more ambiguous character, showing instant, intimate interest in Ball but later letting his attention wander to Melissa Hamilton, who approaches him with a vaguely maternal air. There’s some tension to this latter pairing, like when Bracewell scoops Hamilton’s legs up for a startling spin, but little urgency—and even less when a military captain joins them and further blurs the relationships. The scenes between Bracewell and Ball, on the other hand, are lucid and electric: arms running across chests, legs threaded together, daring fish dives and nuzzled necks. They’re mesmeric, to each other and to us—the kind of storytelling that needs no words, no refrains, just the vivid clarity of human touch.