The 93 dances crammed into this year's Resolution season are meant to give a random sample of what young choreographers are producing around Britain and Europe. The works are neither commissioned nor pre-selected; they have simply been given the opportunity of a professional stage.
But not all the entries come from novices, and if inclusion in the season is meant to put them on an equal level, experience still pays off in performance. Rosie Kay, the choreographer of Asylum, not only comes with a long list of mentors and awards, but as a dancer, she (along with her partner Daniel Yamada) is clearly no stranger to the paying public.
Asylum is a duet for two people - plus their emotional and physical baggage. Struggling onto the stage with a comic overload of plastic bags and holdalls, the two dancers progressively shed their defences and their belongings, in choreography that moves from combative awkwardness to tough, wry accommodation. Issues of exile and belonging inform the piece, but the focus is on the sharp, expressive virtuosity of its two performers.
Interestingly, much of the material in Asylum is echoed in Hagit Bar-Fleming's duet Taken Slowly. Two women fold their bodies around a dance language of tight angles and jittery repetitions; the space between them is edgy with their uncertain reactions to each other's presence. One of the women is deaf, but the material makes only ambiguous reference to the fact. Unlike Asylum, which knows exactly how to work its audience, this duet is so careful, so reticent, that its often pleasing choreographic strategies are easily overlooked.
No such inhibitions have held back Everaldo Pereira in staging her big party number, Scene and Seen. While you can't but admire the fizzing enthusiasm of its eight high-kicking dancers, it's clear their ambitions are West End - not Dance Umbrella.
· Until February 19. Box office: 020-7387 0031.
