Jewels, Bolshoi Ballet at the Royal Opera House, review When the Bolshoi Ballet announced its season at Covent Garden, and tickets flew out of the box office like a flock of so many Swan Lakes, the last performances to sell out were for the two performances of George Balanchine's Jewels. Yet this linked necklace of three self-contained ballets, each named for a sparkling gem, offers a unique chance for a company to display - and an audience to enjoy - its dancing strength in depth. It is also sumptuously beautiful, a fantasy tribute to the art of classical ballet. Each act has its own distinct character. Emeralds to music by Fauré is all gauzy romanticism; Rubies to Stravinsky is jazzy New York neo-classicism; Diamonds to Tchaikovsky is a summation of the Imperial Russian style. Most major companies have now absorbed the work into their repertoire. The challenge for the Bolshoi, which has only been dancing Jewels for a year, is to accommodate its own big, bravura instincts to this very differently inflected work. In Rubies - the middle section - the stress showed, as some of the dancers struggled to find the work's off-kilter rhythms. The central couple of Kristina Kretova and Andrei Merkuriev had some fun and Yulia Grebenshchikova ran a nice line in a saucy, sloping shoulder but the normally excellent corps looked out of sorts. In Emeralds, Anastasia Stashkevich - one of the real standouts of this season - used her gossamer daintiness to weave dreamy spells of wonder. She seemed to swim in the music as she walked backwards in a trance, beautifully supported by Dmitri Gudanov. As the other central figure, Ekaterina Shipulina revealed precise arabesques, raising her leg in jerkily calibrated angles just as Balanchine dictated; Ivan Alexeyev was a graceful cavalier, the trio were gorgeous and it was all as near to perfect as didn't matter. The concluding Diamonds won gasps from the audience just for its setting: a dark sky with glinting stars. But it was the quality of Olga Smirnova and her generous partner Semyon Chudin that really gleamed. The central pas de deux is a mysterious hymn to the pas de deux itself, an encounter between a man and a woman full of magic. It can be danced in many different ways. Smirnova - another sensation of the summer, new to London audiences and astounding - turns it into a kind of story of courtship, making each jut of the chin, each imperiously placed hand say something. Even at 21, she has the quality that great dancers possess of seeming both an ideal of line and shape, and utterly herself. Chudin matched her intensity, with dazzling turns, light jumps, and thoughtful partnering. A three carat joy. Victor Hochhauser presents The Bolshoi Ballet at the Royal Opera House (until Saturday August 17).Tickets: 020 7304 4000; www.roh.org.uk.