THIS was a night to expect the unexpected from Rambert. For it wasn’t the beautiful Roses nor the playful Seven For a Secret, Never to be Told that won the night, but the powerful Monolith.

Third on the bill, this is a dark, atmospheric piece with struggle at its heart: struggle against the gods, the dusty mountains in the background, the sun and sky, and sometimes against the tight satin shorts the dancers had to wear.

It even felt like the accompanying musical quartet was battling against some eternal and impossible odds.

Perhaps a little too melodramatic for some tastes, I found Monolith’s intensity absorbing, the originality of its choreography by Tim Rushton striking and the score by Peteris Vasks commanding.

The signature dance for this tour, Seven For a Secret, Never to be Told, is a delightful piece created by Rambert’s artistic director Mark Baldwin.

Maurice Ravel’s opera The Child and the Spells provided the basis for the atmospheric score divided into 15 sections. This episodic form gave this energetic dance the feeling of a children’s storybook, but more Enid Blyton than Jacqueline Wilson.

Seven for a Secret is a joyous ode to an idyllic past where a group of children could play in a meadow framed by weeping willow trees.

The fantasy was poised with the choreography capturing the amusing ungainliness and wild actions of children.

More romance was to be found in the Roses, created by Paul Taylor in 1985. Set to Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, Roses captures young love. It was a night when Rambert were up against Strictly Come Dancing at the Arena, and despite being a Strictly devotee I can happily say: “Eat your heart out Harry Judd.”

Tamzin Lewis