Glittering lights from a dancehall ball freckle the auditorium, and six women in white walk slowly on stage. They seem serene. But suddenly you realise they are deeply distressed: their gestures are small and agitated, their hands clasped across their throats as if in prayer; they try to pull themselves up from the floor as if paralysed.
In Halo, De-Napoli Clarke, the artistic producer of RJC (Reggae Jazz Contemporary) Dance, captures the feelings he went through after he broke his neck, almost severing his spinal cord. It is an arresting and moving piece, well danced by the company's new lineup of women.
Clarke was attacked with a bottle in a Leeds nightclub in 1998 and thought he would never dance again; he wore a metal cage around his head for months. A leading exponent of black British dance and a dazzling mover, he was trapped in his own body. In Halo he conveys the pain, fear and frustration he went through on his road to recovery.
Halo is one of six new pieces in the programme, called The Dancical - a new slant on the musical. Among the others are the sharply constructed, staccato and complex Architectrix, which reflects Clarke's early aspirations to be an architect, and the witty trio Konducted, which shows how his friends and family were always trying to orchestrate his relationships. Here, American Elizabeth Schwyzer dances with Garry Tomlinson while being conducted by Leandro Carbonell. It's slick and very inventive, the dancers gradually building up the steps from the flicks of the baton, with a mix of capoeira, fluid coupling, tricky lifts and wild torpedoing.
Clarke, who danced in Stomp, uses his percussive talents to the full in TURF (Training Using Rhythmical Frequency), a brilliant touch of rhythm down at the gym with syncopated skipping ropes, kick-boxing pads and sparring partners. There are flashing hula hoops and drumming feet, all wonderfully timed, with RJC regular Debbie Wild exhaustingly physical. And if you've never seen fouettés twirled in trainers, now's your chance.
· At the Hawth, Crawley, on Thursday. Box office: 01293 553 636. Then touring.
