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'The man' of White Oak is of course Mikhail Baryshnikov and you should go just to see him come out and merely stand or walk casually across the stage. He's 54 and has worn well. While Baryshnikov might have wanted White Oak to be an institution loved for itself you can't help but feel that if he were not there it would all turn rapidly to dust.

Erik Hawkins' Early Floating
Photograph by John Ross ©

While we all turn out, with affection and curiosity, to see Baryshnikov as an old friend, it's been with something of a heavy heart at his choice of American modern dance repertoire. And so it was this trip, though at least he did appear in all the pieces and lightened the spirit in a way that mere mortal dancers can't do with unpromising material.

The best piece of the evening, by some margin, turned out to be the oldest: 'Early Floating' by Eric Hawkins in 1961 and looking pretty fresh these 40 years on. The dancers are in mainly black swimsuits with splashes of invigorating colour and there is much health and fitness in the movement to what would have seemed an impossible piece of music by Lucia Dlugoszewski (Cage in style). The movement is buoyant and light and fairly skips along and Baryshnikov has some beautiful jumps to do - it's the time you get nearest to what made him so big in the world.

Erik Hawkins' Early Floating
Photograph by John Ross ©

Elsewhere in the programme we were not so lucky. Trio A (Pressured No 3) by Yvonne Rainer and from 1966 was danced to 'In the Midnight Hour' by The Chambers Brothers but somehow such exciting and dancey music was dulled by disorganisation and unexceptional movement. Pieces by Lucinda Childs opened and closed the show and were so restrained and bland they looked more like sketches or early walk-throughs. Baryshnikov does walking well but these are no real vehicles for such a body and a talent.