Within The Golden Hour / Medusa / Flight Pattern review: Reimagines the snake-haired villainess as a #MeToo heroine

If you’re going to tackle the Medusa myth there’s one thing above all else that you need to get right: that hair. And a mass of black tubing plonked on your lead dancer’s head just isn’t going to cut it.

Yet that’s what we’re presented with in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s latest work, his first for the Royal Ballet, which reimagines everyone’s favourite snake-haired villainess as a #MeToo heroine, complete with dodgy headpiece. The show’s carefully orchestrated, expressively danced — and not a patch on this choreographer’s usual inventiveness.

Cherkaoui is one of dance’s true visionaries, working with everyone from Antony Gormley to Sigur Rós and Beyoncé. His remarkable Sutra saw Chinese monks pole-vaulting and back-flipping across the stage; in 2016’s Icon, dancers pummelled their way through three-and-a-half tons of clay. Delving into Medusa’s past, her rape by Poseidon, betrayal by Athena, and evolution into a man-hating swivel-eyed Gorgon, should have offered a wealth of dramatic possibilities. Instead it’s (whisper it) somehow a little bit dull.

Much of that is down to design — moving taupe columns, bias-cut gowns and trailing silk scarfs which, though beautiful, are curiously deadening (even Natalia Osipova’s basilisk-like stare and menacing bourrées can’t cut through the gloss). Everyone other than the Russian superstar is underused. Matthew Ball darts in and out in a hideous gauze tracksuit, Olivia Cowley flits around in gold hotpants, Ryoichi Hirano shows off his body paint and skort — all to a curious mix of Purcell and electronica.

Completing the show are Christopher Wheeldon’s luminous Within The Golden Hour, with new designs by Jasper Conran (again the men, in shiny big knickers, come off worse) and Flight Pattern, Crystal Pite’s heartrending response to the refugee crisis, beautifully led by Marcelino Sambé and Kristen McNally.

Until May 21 (020 7304 4000, roh.org.uk)