The Place Prize means any number of different things to different people, and while the most accurate description might be the contemporary dance world's answer to the Turner Prize, the Place Prize itself celebrates new dance and stimulating discussions about it. In the five editions of the Place Prize to date, 92 new works have been commissioned, at a cost of nearly £1.4 million, and although Rafael Bonachela won the first edition in 2004, the recent winners have been more unexpected and controversial, leading to debates about the definitions of dance and choreography.

No such debates were in mind on the opening night of the current edition's semifinals, with new works presented by Joe Moran, Moreno Solinas, Tony Adigun and Riccardo Buscarini.

Joe Moran's Obverse was the opening piece, performed by a trio of brightly-coloured dancers. The notes for Obverse describe it as using "a refreshing, unusual and disjointed physical language that foregrounds the virtuosity of dancers to visibly transform their state of being, from moment to moment, in both body and thinking", which many of the audience may have failed to appreciate. For much of the piece, there was little uniting the dancers choreographically, with two occasionally performing similar movements in canon. Much of the music consisted of jerky excerpts of Handel, Beethoven and other choreographers against an industrial backdrop, allowing the choreography to playfully interpret it. Choreographically, Obverse was reminiscent of Siobhan Davies' and Mark Morris's works, and despite the choreographic intent of Moran, had the least impact of the works performed on the night.

Moreno Solinas is one of The Place's Work Place artists, having graduated from LCDS in 2009 and since worked with companies including Bonachela Dance Company, DV8 and Stan Won't Dance. Although Solinas's original proposal for Life is a Carnival is on The Place's website, it doesn't start to hint at the rich theatricality and experimentation of the work - although something unusual might be expected with Kasper Hansen among the collaborators.

The main characters of the opening half of Life is a Carnival are "Moreno Solinas, the World Champion of Salsa", performed by two of his fingers, and a homicidal shoe which not only squashes "Moreno", but proceeds to attack Solinas relentlessly. In the second half, Solinas slowly dances around the stage, singing Celia Cruz's song 'La Vida es un Carnaval', creating his own rhythm with his hands and his feet. Although Solinas's solo is salsa-influenced, there also appears to be echoes of flamenco and bullfighting as it increases in dramatic tension. Life is a Carnival ends with the symbolic death and resurrection of Solinas, bringing to an end a rewarding mixture of theatre, comedy and dance.

Tony Adigun, best-known as the Artist Director of hip hop dance company Avant Garde Dance, created a chilling and unsettling scene for his work The Lake. At first we saw the portrait of a family gathered around a bathtub, wearing period clothing, then the corpse of Lisa Hood slithering down the rear wall, beaten and then embraced by one of the women. The sinister theme was sustained througout, with jerky traumatised movements from each of the dancers, apart from Adam Towndrow who calmly remained near the bathtub holding onto the small girl and reassuring her; the only innocence was in the girl's imitations of the dancers' movements, but all too soon, she too met her untimely end, drowned in the bathtub by Towndrow.

Several of the scenes are reminiscent of the Victorian tradition of post-mortem photography, and the darkness of The Lake's storyline is understandable when you realise its inspiration was the Wisconsin Death Trip, in which a small town in the 1890s succumbed to madness, violence, murder and suicide. The Lake is the most accomplished and polished work of the evening, both choreographically and conceptually, with profound emotional impact and striking visuals. Partway through the piece, however, you realise how manipulative Olafur Arnalds's music is; The Lake has sufficiently strong emotional content to not have to resort to such shamelessly manipulative music, and could perhaps be even more effective with a more subtle choice of music.

The final work of the evening was Athletes by Riccardo Buscarini, a finalist from the last edition of the Place Prize. Inspired by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the three dancers are dressed in pseudo-spacesuits, with only their faces showing. Continuing the filmic feel of Buscarini's previous entry Cameo, Athletes is a disjointed work: initially the dancers stare at each other for a very long time, then create interlocking movements, their three bodies always connected. As one of the dancers rolls away, the other two dancers proceed towards each other in extremely slow motion, towards a kiss which never quite happens. All too briefly, Scene d'Amour from the film Vertigo is played, highlighting the cinematic nature of the scene, while the dramatic music emphasises the lack of onstage drama.

The winner of the audience vote was Tony Adigun, with Moreno Solinas a close second, which is a credit to the achievements of The Place's Work Place scheme and how it is developing its artists. There are twelve more pieces to be performed: which of tonight's - if any - will go through to the finals? Wait and see...


Audience voting scores:

Tony Adigun: 3.6
Moreno Solinas: 3.3
Riccardo Buscarini: 2.7
Joe Moran: 2.5