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This Edinburgh programme comprised three of Liss Fain’s works: the first two from this season and the third being reprised from 2003 as a tribute to the composer, Hamza El Din, who died in May.

As one might expect in a company that derives its movement vocabulary from a single source (although Fain acknowledges the extra creative contributions of her dancers), there is a strong, unifying brand that flows through all of the pieces. Fain’s movement is strongly influenced by the music, having an abstract, emotional and melancholic quality, unencumbered by narrative.

The choice of music is clearly fundamental to the creative process: ‘The Line Between Night and Day’ is set to two movements of Olivier Messiaen’s ‘Quartet for the End of Time’, written whilst a prisoner of war during WWII; and ‘When Still’ is created in three separate sections, corresponding to two madrigals from Monteverdi’s ‘Madrigals of Love And War’ and ending with Chanticleer’s ‘Beata’. In fact, these separate works sit together so well that they should be seen as two parts of a whole. The gentle introspective choral music of ‘When Still’ and the flowing, spiritual movement that it inspires, offsets perfectly the anguished images of a disintegrating civilisation in turmoil that characterises ‘The Line Between Night and Day’. It is a sour and sweet combination that should always be seen together.
 

The eastern rhythms of Hamza El Din’s music for ‘River at the End of the Land’ are accentuated by James Meyer’s costumes, which together conjure up a sandstorm of imagery invoking sun-soaked days and Arabian nights. The choreography focuses on the dynamics of a group with a solo dancer who does not belong in the ensemble. The complex movement dynamics evolve and change, alternating between joy and isolation.

There are several motifs in common throughout the three pieces, which help to enforce the group’s corporate identity but also give the choreography an occasional sameness. Nevertheless, this is a minor quibble of little consequence when set against the mature professionalism, fliud movement and poetic musicality of an excellent little company which stands neatly at the apex of contemporary and classical dance.