THE WORLD premiere of Hofesh Shechter’s Untouchable for the Royal Ballet — his first work for a major dance company — is another milestone in the choreographer’s growing repertoire of dystopian creations.

As its title implies, Untouchable (pictured) is all about the marginalised, with a swarm of dancers alternately representing victimised mind states as they cower in postures of individual disoriented defeat or bond together in striking images of group alienation and the capitulation of the body politic.

The physical motifs of unanswered pleas give way to moments of near stillness as a balm to the anguish on show and the earthiness and stylised grittiness of the choreography offers a stark contrast to the two modern masterpieces Untouchable is sandwiched between.

In contrast to the raw emotion of Shechter’s work, George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments from 1946 and Kenneth MacMillan’s 1966 Song of the Earth are sensual and dynamic displays of virtuosity, blinding examples of the modernist era.

The Four Temperaments luxuriates in unadulterated structural abstractions in which Edward Watson holds court and there’s some startling body-beautiful language in Zenaida Yanowsky’s sculptural movement, patterning and repose.

In contrast Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta’s appearance in Song of the Earth, based on Gustav Mahler’s elegiac song cycle about life and death, comes across as somewhat mannered.

Yet there’s no denying the technical brilliance and athleticism from the dancers as they bring this eclectic programme to a mesmeric conclusion.

Runs until April 14, box office: roh.org.uk

Review by Peter Lindley