Self-styled Ballet Boyz William Trevitt and Michael Nunn have always had a chipper combination of nerve, talent and good luck. Without any experience of directing they successfully launched their own company, George Piper Dances; and with no knowledge of TV they began to screen their own Channel 4 series.
Now the two dancers are raising the bar again. Their new production for GPD does not feature the usual mix of works by top-flight choreographers, but their own new full-length piece. It's stating the obvious that the show's title, Naked, refers as much to the Boyz' artistic self exposure as to the story being danced on stage.
One thing the pair have always been careful about, though, is their choice of collaborators. And when the curtain opens it's evident that Naked has been dressed by a superb team. The stage has been transformed by the designer, Bob Crowley, into a perfect minimalist hotel room, subtly irradiated by Paule Constable's airy lighting, and peopled by dancers in exquisitely cut clothes.
The story Nunn and Trevitt have located in this designer world is a self-destructing love affair, unravelling from its first stages of lust through a crisis of betrayal and revenge. As a plotline it could not be more basic, yet it is played out by six dancers, each one refracting different facets of the situation. And video projections, which capture the characters in out of body moments of loneliness or desire complicate the action yet further.
This is a format creating an immediate impression of psychological depth. But the work still has to stand or fall by the truths communicated through the dancers' bodies. And it rapidly becomes clear that the two choreographers are far too inexperienced to deliver these.
Nunn and Trevitt did not actually go into this work naked. During the early stages of rehearsal they were mentored by the experienced choreographer Russell Maliphant, and it's clear that as they developed their own classically shaped phrases of dance the Boyz borrowed heavily from Maliphant's more visceral, expressive style - using gestures of wary hesitancy to chart the start of the lovers' affair, casual caresses to register the secret scorch of their desire.
But the Boyz have lacked the skills to work these borrowings into a coherent vocabulary and their stock of moves is too limited to sketch credible character or spark gripping emotion.
Too much of the choreography is no more than mood movement and generic posing, its diffuseness underlined by the accompanying score, a random collage of extracts attributed to Murcof and Richard English.
At the end of the first half when two of the lovers fuse in a briefly erotic duet it's not even clear whether this is the consummation of the affair or its betrayal.
The second half opens to a world with Constable's airiness routed by the dark, hellish glitter of Michael Hulls' lighting. The characters are now tearing each other apart but while the dancing has got a fiercer edge the Boyz still don't have the choreographic range to push the characters into a significantly new place.
Dancers may grapple together in angry embraces, they may rear apart in hurt dismay, but it feels like emotion by numbers.
Significantly the best moments come at the close when Nunn and Trevitt are alone on stage and dancing a feverishly combative duet.
A full-length dance narrative is, however, very hard to handle, even for seasoned choreographers, and it would have been miraculous if the Boyz had succeeded on their first attempt.
Naked is a decent experiment which by virtue of expert packaging and fabulous dancing becomes a reasonably good show. It's good enough for the Boyz to justify a second attempt, but certainly not good enough for them to turn GPD into a showcase for their work.
Nunn and Trevitt are much better at programming and performing other people's dances than at making their own. It's not time for them to give up on the day job yet.
· Until June 11. Box office: 0870 737 7737. Then touring
