Quietly, David Hughes is a star. A dancer who stands out in company, he was the original Swan in Adventures in Motion Pictures' acclaimed Swan Lake. He also performed with the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and Rambert Dance Company before moving to Edinburgh to go solo and teach. Despite downsizing, he remains an outstanding performer; little wonder that his one-night stand at the Traverse was packed with appreciative fans.
Two years ago, Map, Hughes's first gathering of commissions from top-drawer dancemakers, created a vehicle for his talents. This new quartet repeats the formula with equal success.
Hughes's approach is to slip neatly under the skin of a dance and make it his own. In this programme, while the style of each of the four choreographers is unique, Hughes subtly absorbs them all. As Pit Fong Loh's kung-fu warrior or Siobhan Davies's faun, Hughes's precise sculpting lends the X factor to work that is already fine.
With supreme concentration, Hughes controls the space of Pit Fong Loh's Invisible/Invincible II with the assistance of a bamboo cane. Every joint in his body flicks with energy. Toes are fascinatingly prominent and his foot has a prehensile ability that is elegant rather than freakish. That elemental skill spills over into The Measurer by Cesc Gelabert, who takes up another kind of stick to score and circle space, trading eastern beats for modern jazz. In both, Hughes is master.
Javier de Frutos's El Uno y Medio is made of more dramatic stuff, but Hughes still holds his own. Caught in the tempest of Spanish flamenco sound and a lightning flash, his torn face and passionate delivery describe Jason's grief at the loss of his murdered children with a restrained temper. Hughes captures this insightful examination of male emotion with uncluttered honesty.
The calming white of Siobhan Davies's interpretation of L'Après-Midi d'un Faune ends this taughtly balanced programme. As Debussy's score for piano trickles across the stage, Hughes modestly claims Nijinsky's classic role for himself.
· At the Eastgate, Peebles (01721 725777), on October 21. Then touring.
