Most of the £7m that has been spent on the Place's much-needed facelift has gone on impressive and necessary facilities for its in-house school. The rest, however, has brought a spacious foyer and, more importantly, an end to those spine-numbing plastic buckets that used to pass for seats inside the auditorium. The theatre itself has been renamed the Robin Howard Dance Theatre in honour of its overhaul, and for its opening the Place's artistic director, Richard Alston, is presenting his own company's latest programme.
The first two works are the most sympathetic to the intractably small venue. The luminous solo Soda Lake, which Alston first created for Michael Clark in 1981, is still a marvel of body sculpture. Amanda Weaver makes every shape look beautiful but, like many in Alston's youthful ensemble, she doesn't yet know how to push her physical and imaginative range. Even better for this intimate stage is Alston's 1994 setting of Britten's Lachrymae, in which the two dancers appear to be attending to some sorrowful music in each other's hearts.
By contrast, the 10 dancers in Strange Company (created to Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze) sometimes look as if they are battling for space. In this ambitious piece, Alston dramatises the relationship between Clara Wieck and Schumann's own melancholic twin egos, weaving their encounters within a formal chorus that articulates the composer's music. The main trio are very fine: Patricia Hines is elegant, doomed; Jason Piper near devilish, and Antoine Vereecken lost and watchful. But there is a problematic restraint in the performances overall.
Water Music was presumably intended to focus the week's celebratory mood, but this final work is a disappointing effort. Sections of Handel's score sound cracklingly festive - the fireworks ricochet, the water blazes with reflected light. And yet Alston's low-key response feels only like a diagram of what this dance was meant to be. It's as though it were still waiting for the party planners to come and supply the extravagance and fantasy that would make it all come alive.
The Richard Alston Dance Company is at the Derngate, Northampton (01604 624811), October 16 and 17, then tours to Cambridge, Brecon, Malvern, Edinburgh and Horsham.
