When Broken Fall was premiered by the Royal Ballet last year, it was hard to separate the accompanying buzz from the excitement of Russell Maliphant's choreography. Not only had this most radically unclassical of works been made at the special request of Sylvie Guillem, but her guest partners, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, were making their first appearance at the Opera House since their defection five years previously.
Broken Fall was always destined for Nunn and Trevitt's own company, though, and its inclusion in George Piper Dances' rep this season has the sense of a homecoming. Stripped of the scale of the opera-house staging, this power-struggle trio looks, paradoxically, more heroic. As the dancers lean into perilous balances and teeter into heart-stopping falls, the intimacy of the Queen Elizabeth Hall's stage exposes exactly how split-second their timing has to be.
It also allows us to appreciate how compellingly the work sustains its driving pulse. Even when the movement slows or suspends, the thread holding the trio together never breaks. Though Broken Fall was a triumph for Guillem, Monica Zamora (who alternates with Oxana Panchenko) has stamped her own body and personality on the role. In place of Guillem's extreme, adamantine line, Zamora's softer limbs and flaring gaze bring a vulnerable quality to the work. The intensity is undiminished but it is less abstract, more flesh and blood.
Completing the programme are two works from the company's previous season: William Forsythe's Approximate Sonata and Christopher Wheeldon's Mesmerics. Hubert Essakow currently alternates with Trevitt in Sonata and he, too, subtly remakes the choreography in his own image. More energetically springy than Trevitt, he makes the subversive doodlings at the edges of the piece look less like manic introvert musings than gentle fun.
In the wonderfully imagined Mesmerics, both choreography and performers look even better than they did the last time round. And this is the real buzz created by George Piper Dances. This is a company that grows exponentially every time we see them.
· Ends Saturday. Box office: 0870 3800 400. Then touring.
