Two years ago Carlos Acosta got together with some friends from the Royal Ballet and put on a show at Sadler’s Wells. It was a big success and went on to win an Olivier Award. So it’s not surprising that he has revived it for the much bigger confines of the Coliseum, where Sadler’s Wells is a partner in the new spring season of dance.

Acosta’s many fans will be pleased to see him in a variety of guises (all of them appealing), even though the ambition of his programming – mainly duets – does look a little small in such grand surroundings. And the mix of classical and contemporary ballets, works that reflect his career in Cuba, America and Europe, feels even odder here than it did at the Wells. It’s hard to make random duets add up to a good night out, despite Acosta’s linking conceit, which is to show us the dancers limbering up backstage between numbers. But it’s hard to carp when there’s so much outstanding dancing on display.

Where to start? Sarah Lamb is terrific in everything. She looks especially pretty in the La Sylphide excerpt (partnered by an increasingly impressive Valeri Hristov); her Dying Swan expires with refined delicacy; and her Edith Piaf solo, Je Ne Regrette Rien (created by Ben Van Cauwenbergh), puts her dancing in defiant and flirtatious mood.

Mara Galeazzi provides plenty of emotional horsepower in MacMillan’s Winter Dreams farewell duet (partnered by a strong Martin Harvey) and in Liam Scarlett’s sweet Margot and Rudy coupling (Hristov, again, looking good). Lauren Cuthbertson didn’t have a great Agon moment on Tuesday, despite Acosta’s handsome support, but she did look far more at home in William Tuckett’s imaginative solo, Nisi Dominus, which delves deep into its character’s stage psyche. Even Ben Stevenson’s drippy End of Time duet is made to work by Caroline Duprot and Harvey.

If you want classical fireworks you can’t do better than Acosta and Tamara Rojo, and the competitive gymnastics of Vaganova’s Diana and Actaeon pas de deux bring out the best in both. Rojo’s precision and power are awesome, just like her pirouettes, while Acosta has thunder in his dancing and incredible, exhilarating liftoff in his jumps. I just wish she looked as if she was enjoying herself as much as he does. On Tuesday, she was way more expressive as a tango siren in Gustavo Mollajoli’s A Buenos Aires (partnered by José Martin).

Acosta’s charisma makes even the largest stage feel small, and his way of dignifying space works even in comedy. Just witness his glorious drunken solo in Les Bourgeois (Van Cauwenbergh, again). Still, it’s a relief to find the stage flooded with eight dancers for the upbeat finale, Majisimo, by the Cuban Georges Garcia. Combining Russian virtuosity with Latin panache, it pretty much screams “if you’ve got it, flaunt it”. And these dancers sure do.

Carlos in Cuba opens at the Coliseum on April 9 2008. Box office: 0870 1450200

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