Scotland's national dance company follows last year's Balanchine success with four short works - two modern, two contemporary. In Agon (Greek for "contest"), a near-fall downstage on the first night underlined the complex demands of Balanchine's choreography - an extreme art form for alphas only. Undaunted, the company kept rock steady to Stravinsky's score, to recreate the beguiling 1950's symmetry. The four men held the pattern taut, while Eve Mutso made full use of her New-York-City-Ballet-long-legged stretch.
Afternoon of a Faun (1953), by fellow American Jerome Robbins, puts boy and girl in a practice studio. Plotted against a dreamy Debussy score, it - like Agon - celebrates physical beauty within a sophisticated music/dance relationship. But while Agon's characters practise an adult sensuality, this pair (Luisa Rocco and Christopher Harrison) have teenage bloom and inward distractions.
Two Pieces for HET by Hans van Manen brought the company into a 21st century field of vision. Claire Robertson and Erik Cavallari locked comfortably into each other in the evening's least compelling work.
Underlining its traditional marriage to choreography, artistic director Ashley Page chose to highlight the musical content of this programme, all of it worthy of such notice and performed warmly by Scottish Opera's orchestra. The finale, In Light and Shadow (2000), by Polish dancemaker Krzysztof Pastor, gave us Bach's Third Suite in D major and its famous air for strings, the parade of silks and skirts (men too) flying with natural elegance. While Pastor's moves rigorously plotted the score, the lightness of Tomomi Sato contrasted against the big strengths of Paul Liburd and Jarkko Lehmus in this motivated, international cast of 24.
