THE company’s director and celebrated choreographer David Bintley not only staged the world premiere of his new work but has arguably upstaged the actual inspiration for the piece.

The eagerly-awaited London Olympics may now be only a javelin throw away but it’s hard to imagine anything being more dynamic and exciting than Faster, his new creation and salute to the forthcoming sports fest.

Bintley admits that he’s trying to find a language which conveys the kinetic excitement, power, beauty and introspection of the various disciplines that constitute the Olympic Games.

To say he’s just done just that is actually a massively modest understatement. For this superlative piece, with all its stunning athletic imagery, is a gymnastic homage to the human body being tested to its furthest outer limits.

A series of dramatic sequences, conducted with pinpoint accuracy, form the basis of the work. Bintley, acutely aware that plotless ballets can often be little more than shop windows for style and technique, somehow manages to transform an activity that is precisely that into the highest artistic endeavour.

And this will indeed be a hard act to follow. For if the actual events are anything as exhilarating as this when the time comes, then that will really be something to look forward to.

Faster is the middle item in Summer Celebration, by my estimation the finest triple bill that the company has ever produced since relocating to Second City in 1990.

The production starts with Grand Tour, a typical piece of Noel Coward whimsy that hits you straight between the eyes from the start with Mad Dogs and Englishmen, the great man’s lyrical and satirical acknowledgement of the between-the-wars imperial classes.

Elisha Willis as Gertrude Lawrence captures the mood from the outset, a 1920s flapper that never looks anything but unflappable. Meanwhile, Joseph Caley (Douglas Fairbanks) and Matthew Lawrence (Coward) perfectly portray the mannerisms of the idle rich, the latter’s preposterous aloofness instantly conveying the main character’s trademark foibles.

Of course, this was not only the dance age but also the time when to be without a cigarette was like coming tie-less to dinner. Somehow or other, the cast manages to glide across the boards while still smoking their heads off. Herbal fags, I hasten to add.

Frederick Ashton’s The Dream closes the night and provides the perfect vehicle for BRB favourites Chi Cao and Nao Sakuma to exhibit those consummate skills born of the undeniable personal chemistry that exists between them.

Cao’s King of the Fairies is exactly what Shakespeare would have wished for his Oberon, a scheming yet flawed lordly master of all he surveys. He strides the Forest of Arden with despotic purpose, a blend of the Green Man and some demonic god of the underworld.

Nevertheless, he is ultimately brought to heel by Sakuma’s Titania, the resulting footwork fireworks effortless illuminating the magical ambience of designer Peter Farmer’s lush woodland glade.

Royal Ballet Sinfonia conductor Paul Murphy does a particularly fine job with Mendelssohn’s score, the music soaring and deftly weaving its way through the treetops, bewitching all within earshot.

Meanwhile, Mathias Dingman as Puck and Jonathan Caguioa’s Bottom explore the full comic potential – and more - to a piece that sits perfectly on a humid evening at the end of an English June.

Summer Celebration runs at Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday, a veritable midsummer feast of dance guaranteed to tickle every taste bud.