?Dance Forward with the Principals and Soloists of The Royal Ballet? was a selection of gems strung together by comp?re Wayne Sleep.

The Gala Evening, part of the Bermuda Festival, at City Hall on Tuesday seemed designed to have something for everyone ? from the delightful piece of nonsense featuring the well-known characters Tweedledum and Tweedledee to the passionate balcony Pas de Deux from ?Romeo and Juliet?.

The pieces seem to have been chosen to showcase the virtuosity of the individual dancers rather than to create a coherent theme running through the programme.

The trouble with a selection of gems is that, if not cleverly strung together, it doesn?t quite make a necklace.

The dance equivalent of ?Famous Shakespearean Soliloquies?, the programme left me feeling I had missed something.

The comp?re didn?t tell me anything I hadn?t learned from reading the programme, and lacking an intimate knowledge of the larger works, except for Romeo and Juliet, I would have welcomed some comment on the context from which the dances were taken ? who, for example, were the three characters in the Act 1 Pas de Trios from ?Le Corsaire??

Without this knowledge, I was left appreciating the amazing technical skill and power of the dancers, without truly appreciating the emotion of the piece.

I felt I hadn?t quite got it, confirming my initial concern that perhaps these samplings from the ?rarified world of classical ballet? ? as the programme put it ? were a treat for the cognoscenti rather than the general public.

Act I opened with two graceful pieces, ?Tanglewood?, which had me imagining two swallows in a bright summer sky, and a Pas de Deux from ?Swan Lake? conveying the haughty grandeur of two majestic creatures.

?Elite Syncopations?, set to the bright ragtime music of Scott Joplin, ably played by Philip Gammon in an elaborate piece of millinery, was a bubbly, energetic piece full of joie de vivre. ?Je ne regrette rien? was set to Edith Piaf?s rendition (which the singer dedicated to the French Foreign Legion and which had been sung by the Legion as they were forcibly evacuated from Algeria in April 1961).

An unusual piece, the jerky puppet-like movements contrasted with more fluid elements; the fleeting solo from ?Diana And Acteon? provided a bridge to the comic Charlie Chaplin tribute. The first half culminated in the exquisite balcony Pas de Deux from ?Romeo and Juliet? sensually portraying the ?sweet sorrow? of the encounter.

The selections in the second Act were a similar mix, opening with a vibrant new work created especially for Bermuda by Alistair Marriott.

The pieces ranged from the Tweedledum & Tweedledee farce to the quiet contemplation of the ?Concerto 2nd Movement? set to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich; my personal favourite, it was pensive, almost sombre in tone, sculptural in quality conveying the power and fluidity of liquid light.

The finale, following on from an exciting Pas de Trois from ?Le Corsaire?, was a reprise of sorts, showing off the virtuosity of individual dancers and had many of the audience on their feet in a rousing ovation.

The Royal Ballet?s final performance will be tonight. For ticket availability and further information telephone the Bermuda Festival box office at 296-5774 between noon and 2 p.m. or visit the website www.bermudafestival.org.