Carlos Acosta: Classical Selection, London Coliseum, review For several years in his summer seasons at the Coliseum, Carlos Acosta has been trying to add a few tougher nuts to the mix. This year, to celebrate his 40th birthday, he has invited some of his colleagues from the Royal Ballet to break their holidays and dance in some of his favourite works. Out of context, a duet from Fokine's Scheherazade looks odd; Acosta and Nuñez fare better in the deliciously silly Diana and Actaeon pas de deux where the shape and height of his twisting jumps (more effortful than of yore but still perfectly formed) and the sharp finesse of her turns generates excited applause. But it is when 49-year-old Leanne Benjamin steps out of her recent retirement to perform a scene from Manon with an unusually impassioned Nehemiah Kish that the evening starts to fly. MacMillan's works are engrained in her body and her heart; every tiny inflection is just right, and she turns the gala into a mini master class of how to dance them It is her deeply felt performance opposite a melodramatic Acosta that justifies the brave decision to begin the second half with the final despairing scene from Mayerling. With the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and Pegasus Choir in fine form, this is followed by long, satisfying extracts from Gloria (danced by Hamilton and Kish) and Requiem, movingly performed by Benjamin and Acosta. These MacMillan pieces work their magic. There are no curtain calls between extracts. The artistry is all. Acosta's refined grace is also on display in a duet from Balanchine's Apollo, with Nuñez in luminous partnership. That's where the evening should have ended. Its actual conclusion - Miguel Altunaga's odd modern solo for Acosta in bare chest and baggy trousers - breaks the mood. But Acosta's warmth has always been part of his appeal - and this is a generous evening. A very high class box of chocolates indeed, with no orange creams. Until Sunday, August 4 (no performance August 1). Tickets: 020 7845 9300 www.eno.org or 0844 412 4300 www.sadlerswells.com