Performance: Rambert Dance Company

Aotea Centre

Reviewer: Bernadette Rae


They dance their steps to perfection, with lyricism, line, energy and crisp and conscious placement of every inch of skin, muscle and bone. The dancers number 21 in the final curtain call, and while some stand out as having more prominent roles, more exposure, none is a weak link, or even a less perfect link.

My eyes were firmly fixed on former Royal New Zealand Ballet star Amy Hollingsworth, who always shone as exceptional here - and exceptional she is. Her precision and musicality and intense presence still mark her out. But in Rambert she is in equally exceptional company.

So the exquisite technique is there in abundance, the artistry is there, and the dancers certainly burn with their individual passions. But there is no mistaking the very British character of the company, as in formal, mannered, just a little stiff in the upper lip. It is very well-enunciated dance.

The choreographer of all three pieces shown, artistic director Christopher Bruce, can take the bow for all that Englishness.

Meeting Point, made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Charter, explores through stylised handshakes and courtly dances the difficulties of getting nations - or people - together. Ghost Dances deals with political oppression in South America and adds a movement vocabulary that speaks vibrantly of the folk dance and customs of the South American Indians.

Rooster struts its rock contemporary stuff along to the best of the Rolling Stones, in a hilarious yet sensitive look at the 60s.

It is all great: interesting, thoroughly contemporary without loosing anything of the classical technique, versatile. But there is not a single moment when it really lets rip. Not one sharp, breath-sucking angle of risk. No millisecond of emotional confusion. Not much emotion at all, really.

"And thank goodness for that!" I can hear the very non-florid choreographer, Christopher Bruce CBE, say.