There is always the hope that performances given by young, untested choreographers will announce some bold agenda for the future of dance. In fact, showcases of new work, such as the Resolution season, often leave me grumbling that choreographers under 30 have no sense of history. It's hard to get excited about ideas that were radical four decades ago.
Certainly the opening minutes of Korper, Terrain by the German duo Christina Ciupke and Manuela Fischer, where the two women lie motionless on an empty, silent stage, sent me into reflex critical mode. Hadn't they heard of Paul Taylor, who in 1957 earned a blank review for standing still in a dance show? But as the pair finally began to move, minutely adjusting their bodies through the slowest of stretches, somersaults, crouches and crawls, I saw that they weren't reiterating the mischievous deconstructions of earlier generations, but doing a very contemporary spin on minimalism. They were doing dance as designer loft living, dance as feng shui.
Dressed in muted grey and brown and tracking around a space that was fastidiously lit, the two dancers sculpted their bodies through a sequence of beautiful and contemplative forms. Low-key music subtly altered the ambience from trance to urban. We never saw the dancers' faces, so deeply coiled and twisted were their bodies, but we got to know their limbs, their spines, the soles of their feet, the sensuous precision of their breathing . If the pacing of the work was such that our minds wandered, it was always a pleasure returning to this space of elegant lines and gracious calm.
Lurking in the background of I Am Vertical, a work by the enigmatically styled group th53, was the imposing ghost of Pina Bausch. The six dancers spoke snatches of confessional nonsense and attempted tasks that were comically doomed to failure, all in familiar Bausch mode. But th53's humour revelled in a loopy wit that was all its own and the performers were slick and engaging.
The centrepiece of the programme was choreographed by Martin Lawrance, a terrifically gifted dancer and a member of the Richard Alston Company. ShELF is set to a suite of Bach solo cello music, performed onstage while Lawrance sent phrases of physically lush but emotionally introvert dance spinning along the lines of the music. The work featured deftly choreographed passages performed to a high standard, but it also appeared cramped. There weren't enough passionately held ideas and images blowing through the tidily arranged material in ShELF. Somehow the piece took up too little room.
Resolution continues until January 28. Box office: 020-7388 8822.
