There could hardly have been a more natural subject for Kenneth MacMillan's imagination than Hamlet. Eloquently at odds with the world, with sex and with his own divided nature, the prince of Denmark was the obvious successor to the Rudolfs, Anastasias and Isadoras of MacMillan's world.
Yet Sea of Troubles (which was made in 1988 for the chamber ensemble Dance Advance) makes a dramatic departure from the detailed plotlines and emotional realism of MacMillan's most famous story ballets.
Not only is it a fiercely concentrated piece, reducing Shakespeare's tragedy to around 45 minutes, but its six dancers divide all the main roles between them, swapping from Hamlet to Polonius, Gertrude to Ophelia with barely a pause. The point of this device is not to perform a large tragedy with a small cast, but to highlight the structural logic of the story's relationships.
Old Hamlet, Polonius and young Hamlet all emerge as variants of the same dead/ dispossessed character who haunts the guilty living. Gertrude and Ophelia are women on the receiving end of male violence and dysfunction. The whole cast are united as characters who watch each other and are watched with claustrophobic intensity.
Audiences probably need to know their Shakespeare to follow the work's internal logic, as well as to appreciate its style. This is a ballet seemingly influenced by Noh traditions - its action fragmented into brief tableaux, its expression distilled into symbolic gestures and tight choral dances. The ballet's quasi-minimalist, quasi-oriental style makes it an interesting item in the MacMillan canon and it is to ENB's merit that they have brought it back to the London stage.
Adam Cooper guests during its short run and, since he has previously danced Sea of Troubles with his own pick-up company, he provides an unusually authoritative anchor for the cast. But ENB's own dancers are good too. Emotionally focused and alert to the ballet's style, they make a convincing case for keeping Sea of Troubles in the permanent rep.
Much less permanent are the other six works in the programme, all created by ENB members. If MacMillan was an anxious dancer for whom choreography was an escape from the stage, most of these novice dance-makers have taken the opportunity to create performance vehicles for themselves.
Thomas Edur's anguished solo, If, is a heartfelt departure from his celebrated classical style, while Yosvani Ramos's Divertimento pour six is a delightfully shameless advert for his own sunny virtuosity. These are not pieces for wide public viewing, but they are good company practice, a chance for dancers to be creators rather than instruments.
• Ends tonight. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
