For many, the biggest attraction of  Saturday’s Resolution programme turned out to be the biggest disappointment. Back for its 23rd year, Resolution is The Place’s annual season featuring nightly changing triple bills of never seen before choreography. The open-ended nature of Resolution ensures that it never fails to bring with it a few surprises and standards, as always, are variable. However, as Royal Ballet principal soloist Edward Watson took to the stage to perform in Kirill Burlov’s, Green, the bustling audience clearly had high hopes. Unfortunately, the result was underwhelming.

Watson, moved flawlessly with elongated arabesques and snake-like articulation in his spine. However, Burlov’s choreography remained dynamically monotone, with limited dance vocabulary and an overload of bazaar Tetris-style graphic blocks being projected across the stage. Even stranger was the costume choice, which looked like a cross between a sc-fi dinosaur and a clown.

Rarely do choreographers have access to one of the world’s best dancers, especially in such intimate surroundings and watching Watson in Burlov’s arrangement was like going to watch Christiano Ronaldo at a charity football match where he’d been asked to sit on the bench.  It was a pity because amidst the haphazard flurry of ideas there were definite areas of promise, for example the fleeting moments when Watson interacted with the graphics and the two moved in unison.

Similarly, Divya Kasturi’s solo choreography and performance, Memory, failed to ignite any excitement. Kasturi can certainly dance, however her delivery lacked the intricacy and conviction required of Kathak choreography. It is difficult for any solo dancer to sustain an audience’s interest for a prolonged period of time and while there were pockets of energy throughout the piece, Kasturi failed to command the stage with the requisite confidence.

By far most arresting work of the evening was from Stones’ Echo by Leda Franklin. Performed by Digital Dance Company, the piece opened with two men playing with stones before moving into a prolonged contact improvisation duet.  The two men soon became four, moving in slow motion towards the audience. At this stage it wasn’t clear where, if anywhere, the work was going, however the Beastie Boys musical accompaniment was certainly helping to kick-start momentum.

The turning point in Franklin’s choreography came when Eleni Edipid joined the men on stage, catching their attention in her floaty red dress, the men glared with curiosity. However the curiosity soon became intensified, verging on violent, as they began to throw and propel Edipid between one another like a human pinball. The result was thrilling, the audience gasping with anticipation every time Edipid was tossed in the air, only to be caught a millisecond before she falls. As the brutality descended and the men began throwing stones at Edipid the choreography ended with an abrupt, but nonetheless poignant jolt. A positive end to a cumbersome night.