CandoCo's mission is not just to show that disabled dancers can perform alongside the able-bodied. It is to prove that choreographers can work with that mix without compromising. Some fine commissions have proved their point in recent years, and oddly the weakness of their current programme proves it too. The problems in the material don't arise from the physical limitations of the two wheelchair users - David Lock and Marc Brew are the most charismatic members of the cast. Rather, it is because their talents have not been fully mobilised - and this is symptomatic of a programme in which all three choreographers are simply operating under par.
Luca Silvestrini and Bettina Strickler have made their reputation by stitching riotous clowning and astute observation into serious comedy. In Microphobia they launch their cast through a series of random scenarios, including an airport security check, a therapist's office and the ongoing situation of the performance. As they bustle between dance and silent-comedy numbers the dancers are regularly diverted to one of the microphones littering the stage - spilling out their thoughts and observations, checking out each other's reactions. Fizzing gently within this chaotic heap of material are a few funny ideas, including David Lock's droll spin on the old audience confrontation routine when he delivers a series of mordantly personal comments, his tone pitched perfectly between waspish confrontation and mild melancholy.
We get the point that, in their very modern quest for self-discovery, these dancers will submit to all kinds of daftness and humiliation. But there is, unfortunately, nothing else to get. Lacking any driving logic (however loopy) or internal rhythm, Microphobia is one of those larky workshop pieces that don't hold up on stage.
Stephen Petronio's Human Suite begins with small revelatory encounters, hinting at intimacies waiting to be stirred, yet it rarely gets beyond doodling, distracted dance fragments. Only towards the end, when Petronio really works with the wheelchair dancers do you get glimpses of what this piece could be. He bowls the two men through the rest of the group at ecstatic speeds, floats them through multiple turns and exploits the grace of Brew's ballet training in arms that trail curving jet streams as he flies. Lovely stuff - but it comes too late to rescue a dispiriting evening.
· At Wyvern Theatre, Swindon, on March 23. Box office: 0870 606 3570. Then touring.
