'Outside In' reviews Jordain in reviews Tattersall in reviews recent RB reviews more Lynette Halewood reviews

What was on offer was five works, four of them short items of ten minutes or less, and one more lengthy item which was itself an excerpt from a longer work by Lisa Torun. It was a good chance to get a close look at some of the younger dancers and to see some work by unfamiliar names – some more engaging than others, but all put across with commendable commitment and verve. It was less than an hours worth of dance in total, which was something of a pity, but these programmes depend on dancers working in time which can be spared from the main stage. At least it wasn’t blighted by injuries as last year’s was.

The opening work featured the choreographer Mavin Khoo performing with Kristen McNally. Khoo had chosen a beautiful Handel aria from Rinaldo, sung live here by a countertenor. The lead in operas of this period is often sung by a woman rather than a man, and the dance emphasised this androgyny suggested in the plaintive music. Both performers wore voluminous skirts, but Khoo’s upper body was bare and the choreography made the most of his beautifully expressive back and arms. McNally is rather taller than him, and this was an unusual balance between the sexes: both of them got to lift the other (something of a trend for the evening). It was a very controlled and contained piece, the dancers seldom moving from outside a small circle of light.

Threadbare was a duet for Cindy Jordain (recently joined from ENB) and Adam Linder. It was made by Gildas Diquero, who has worked with a number of dance companies in London. This had a very distinctive language and showed off the dancers well. It portrayed a badly matched couple in one of those can’t live with, can’t live without relationships: a rare chance in the evening to put across character as well as movement. In terms of the interlocking movement and shifts of weight between the two dancers it recalled something the methods of Russell Maliphant but the style was quite definitely Diquero’s own. Short but satisfying: just the right length to get the point across. Nicely set to the music (recorded: Biber Passacaglia). Jordain and Linder looked very well matched and very fluent and easy through very complex moves.

Niklas Laustiola’s Interplay was set for three women, this time using pointe shoes and rather more classical vocabulary. Christina Arestis, Helen Crawford and Sian Murphy were moved and moulded through various sculptural poses, one entity made up of three parts for the most part rather than three separate dancers. The music here was John Cage, which I don’t find too pleasing to the ear, but the choreographer managed to find patterns in it.

Abstract with Red Accents was the final item before the interval. This was created by David Fielding, who attended the RBS, danced with BRB and subsequently made dances for a number of companies. This was probably the most balletic of the pieces, with a concern for purity of line. The dancers were Ernst Meisner and Iohna Loots. Fielding seemed particularly interested in her flexibility. Meisner was a concerned and sympathetic partner.

Watson invited Lisa Torun to show the final item, an extract from Triptych. She had been invited to create a work for last years Outside In which ran into difficulties because of the injuries prevalent in the company at that time. This performance didn’t feature dancers from the company, but it did bring a guest appearance from Jenny Tattersall, a veteran of all the RB’s Clore and Linbury events, who left the company last year. She dances with Lisa Torun: at another date Torun will be accompanied by Olaf Schmidt which may change the dynamics of the performance somewhat.

Torun’s work isn’t for me. It was very strikingly performed, but I didn’t warm to it. It wasn’t that it was bad, it just wasn’t to my taste. One of those broccoli moments. Some people are keen on it, others avoid it like the plague even if it’s beautifully cooked and presented. This work featured speech as well as dance, some whispered commentary about massage. There was some very inventive lifts – both dancers get to lift each other repeatedly, but I thought the point had been made after the first dozen variations on the theme. It was danced with great conviction and energy by Torun and Tattersall. This was just an excerpt at twenty minutes or so, but felt longer.