Darcey Bussell last night returned to role that six years ago started her on the road to becoming Britain's best known ballerina.

The Eye on Dance

In the late 18th century, Richard Samuel chose nine Muses of the day - all self-confessed blue stockings, then a term of praise - to pose for The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain. Now, using electronic wizardry, the painting has been updated for the Nineties.

Ballet orchestras get very excited about playing an entire evening of Ravel. Not because Ravel is necessarily their favourite composer, but because playing just one composer all night makes them feel like musicians again. Accompanying the dancers with cut and paste Tchaikovsky symphonies doesn't have this effect. They were looking forward to last Friday's Ravel programme and it showed.

TEN YEARS IN THE ARTS

Whenever two or more artspeople are gathered together, it seems to be the main topic of conversation: who will be Secretary of State for the National Heritage if Labour wins the election? The loud whisper coming from them as should know is that it will be Peter Mandelson, aka as spin doctor supreme. He is rather more arty than is generally known. He is a trustee of the Whitechapel Art Gallery and is on the board of the English National Ballet, at whose functions he has been spotted deep in conversation with the ENB's patron, the Princess of Wales on matters balletic. A frenetic disco dancer himself, Mr Mandelson has not yet taken to the floor with the ENB patron.

Louise Levene on the pick 'n' mix approach our ballet companies take to filling their dance-cards

The Critics: Dance

The Royal Ballet's Ashton repertoire is like a fine string of pearls: if no one takes them out and wears them in the full glow of limelight they lose their lustre and start to look like old false teeth. Although the company has been accused of neglecting its heritage, it has been striving to make amends with painstaking revivals and new productions. The latest Ashton bill at Covent Garden opened on Monday night with Symphonic Variations, The Dream and an overdue revival of Illuminations, which began the programme.

I didn't watch the first episode of The House, the BBC's behind- the-scenes look at what really goes on at the Royal Opera House. I had imagined that it would be about opera, a dead art form I am, sadly, congenitally unable to enjoy.

IF THERE was ever a ballet weighed down by expectation, this was it: a big new work by a big-name American choreographer for a company badly in need of a hit. Twyla Tharp's Mr Worldly Wise was custom-built for the Royal Ballet, a vehicle both for its handsome corps and some of its brightest stars. The stage was set for a triumph. Curious then, that in the lull following Act I at the world premiere last Saturday, and again after Act II, there was a palpable lack of buzz. Whatever had been expected (something more modern, more bold, more difficult?) it clearly wasn't this.

Dance: Beauty & the Beast Royal Albert Hall, London

The legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp is on a mission to rescue the Royal Ballet. By Jenny Gilbert

'Cope partners Bussell as though dancing were the most ecstatic experience in the world'