An A-list crowd including Liz Hurley, Paul O'Grady, Arlene Phillips, Andy Serkis and Jaques Azagury was out in force for this new ENB programme.

From the tartan and tutu-clad Scottish Highlands to a bleak monochrome dreamscape, this double bill delights in delicious contrasts.

It is the perfect showcase for the versatility and ever-growing confidence of the ENB under artistic director Tamara Rojo. Incredibly, the iconic star made her UK debut in 1996 with the Scottish National Ballet where she danced the lead in La Sylphide.

At 43 she shows no sign of hanging up her pointe shoes and is on her usual imperious form, but it seems fitting that this time around she swaps the youthful romanticism of La Sylphide for the darker themes of Song of the Earth.

Age, wisdom and sublime technique find their perfect outlet in Kenneth MacMillan's celebrated short piece.

The ENB's latest two-week run at the Coliseum is a tempting offering which may require some hardchoices for ballet fans. This week offers Sylphide and Song but next week swaps out Song of the Earth for Le Jeune Homme et La Mort wth the tantalising return of Ivan Vasiliev in the explosive lead role.

Which to choose? With constantly rotating leads in La Sylphide the decadent answer, of course, is both.

Last nights premiere of La Sylphide treated a rapt audience to Jurgita Dronina and Isaac Hernández as the star-crossed tragic pair. 

With staging by three luminaries of Danish ballet, Frank Andersen, Eva Kloborg and Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter, the production explodes with colours, textures and slick visual tricks.

Hernandez is delightfully fleet-footed as the fickle Highlaird laird who ditches his sweet fiancee (a winsome Anjuli Hudson) for the flighty Sylph. Dronina is lovely in a roel which requires her to endlessly tease but never deliver.

This results in a slightly strange traditional ballet which never reaches the usual grande pas de deux. Basically, there's a lot of foreplay without the finale.

There is, however, plenty of drama. Betrayal and death are regular ballet bed fellows and do their work with gusto here.  

The corps de ballet is on fine and full-bodies form thorughout.

From energetic reels to the massed sylphs in the tragic final act, they dance with clarity and conviction with Precious Adama lovely as the First Sylph. 

The Song of the Earth offers far meatier fare and a stark contrast to the buccolic bombast of La Sylphide.

When it first debuted, MacMillan's 1965 classic was an unexpected blend of modern attack with elegant lines.  In this latest production Mahler's mournful score is given wonderful colour by tenor Samuel Sakker and contralto Rhonda Browne in alternating songs. 

Six abstract scenes centre on Rojo, Joseph Caley and Aaron Robison as The Woman, The Man and The Messenger of Death.

The dancing ebbs and flows with the music and is uniformly strong. Even so, the slightly vague meditation on life and death feels overlong with some of the scenes somewhat indistinguishable. I found myself drifting off at times before the final acts brings catharsis.

Curiously, the hypnotic repetitions and Mahler's score actually sneakily combine to result in a deceptively powerful experience.  

Rojo, naturally, is dazzling throughout but is a powerhouse of precision and emotional punch. Few dancers communicate from footwork to face with such conviction.

Joseph Caley is a fine partner and strong in group scenes. Coloma dances beautifully but seems slightly out of synch with everyone else on stage. Perhaps an artistic choice as The Messenger of Death?

This is a stimulating and bold double bill that has fine moments. It  ends on a literal high in a moment of magical stagecraft as the fallen Sylph is borne up into the sky and her beloved sobs below.  

ENB: Song of the Earth / La Sylphide is on at the London Coliseum Tuesday 9 – Saturday 13 January 

Tickets and information call: 020 7836 0111 or go to : www.londoncoliseum.org