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The programme at Sadlers opened with a Kylian work, Indigo Rose, made for NDT2 last year. This was for me the most satisfying piece from a purely choreographic point of view. It was a coherent and carefully structured work. The designs are attractively and elegantly simple: a white curtain across part of the stage gives plenty of opportunities for playing with the silhouettes of dancers both in front of and behind it, and the relative sizes of shadows and actual bodies. The lighting was by Michael Simon, and framed the piece very nicely. The dance seemed more unified than the music which jumped around from Bach, Cage, electronic noise and a syrupy version of I’m a fool to care. This did seem somewhat perverse: perhaps Kylian was just having fun illustrating that a coherent dance and performance can work against the most perverse background, or perhaps an NDT audience is expected to have a short musical attention span. The ending also seemed rather contrary: after assembling all nine dancers on stage, they remain frozen for a number of moments as a series of black and white images play on a screen at the back of the stage. It was a curiously downbeat ending to a lively and vigorous piece put across with great energy and charm, especially by the man in red (who I think was Mario Zambrano - pictures in the programme would be a help).

The second work was Mellantid, made in 1995 by Johan Inger, who has made other works for the company. NDT2 performed his Sammanfall here in 1997, which I found rather uninvolving at the time. This earlier work - his first - is much lighter in tone. It’s an affectionate evocation of a group of people in late adolescence and their pairings and departures, and sits well on the company. There are a number of neatly sketched vignettes - various adolescent fumblings, and a disco scene complete with glittery ball which evoked an atmosphere of sweaty tension. The six dancers presented an authentic evocation of energy, confusion, and the occasional hint of regret. The women (Rani Luther, Natasa Novotna) were particularly impressive.

I have rather mixed feelings about the final work on the programme, Minus 16 by Ohad Naharin: mainly because the work itself is a mixture, made up of sections of four of his previous works (Zachacha, Anaphase, Sabotage Baby, Moshe) put together to form a new one. It didn’t really hang together in a satisfactory way. The joins were very visible, and earlier sections of the dance didn’t seem to relate to later ones. Again the music is an eclectic mishmash, chopping up bossa nova, Israeli music and some throbbing electronic stuff into a multicultural soup. But what this work does have going for it is the full company of fourteen dancers - somehow they seem like more - gathering together to really let rip and let their hair down, and have a damn good time.

After a rather repetitive section with the company gathered in a semi circle of chairs, the dancing continued to a series of voice overs from various members of the company describing themselves and sometimes their attitude to dance. This was toe-curlingly embarrassing stuff for the most part, and I really dreaded that we’d have to hear from all of them. They should stick to dancing: it’s where their talents lie, and they really are very strong, confident and exuberant dancers, full of vitality and charm. After this, the potential for embarrassment increased with audience participation time: yes, you have been warned. The dancers leap into the stalls and select a partner each. Some of these just had to be plants, because they were just too good, but not all were. Anxious giggles all round gave way to warm applause, as a good time was had by all. They should really have ended it there with the audience in a particularly happy and relaxed mood, but there was another, more frenetic section to come before the curtain. It was fun crowd pleasing stuff, performed with great verve and style, but the work itself seemed more fast food than real nourishment in dance terms. But NDT2 are a hugely likeable company with a great sense of fun, and got a wild response from a packed house at Sadler’s.