Richard Alston's one-off performances at The Place provide London audiences with the opportunity to see the company in a new light: not only does The Place provide an intimate setting to watch the dancers up close, but the selection of works typically demonstrates Alston's more experimental ideas, redefining how we see Alston as a choregrapher.

Alston remains extremely prolific, creating not one but two new(ish) works for the short season at The Place, accompanied by a new work by Martin Lawrance; these new works also introduced the company's new apprentices, who have managed to blend seamlessly into the company already. And although the incomparable Andres de Blust-Mommaerts has left Richard Alston Dance Company to join Donlon Dance Company in Saarbrücken, few could have anticipated the impact this would have on the remaining dancers - or one dancer in particular.

The programme opened with Shimmer, a work for seven dancers, created in 2004 with jewel-encrusted cobweb costumes by Julien McDonald. It opened with a sensual duet between Hannah Kidd and Pierre Tappon, with expansive movements and an emphasis on extensions as though to make the most of the costumes' diamonds.

Alston is renowned for his musicality - for his ability to fine-tune his choreography to the nuances of the accompanying music - and so the mood of each section of Shimmer reflected the changing themes of Ravel's piano music, performed onstage by Jason Ridgway: some sections were more technical, others slower and more graceful. The contact duets - extremely rare for Alston - were particularly effective, with Alston creating relationships between his dancers rather than solitary movement to be performed alongside each other, which has its own beauty.

Shimmer ended with a powerfully-performed solo by Nathan Goodman; having been a tour de force in his duet with Nancy Nerantzi, his physical control and poise made his solo all the more impressive. And Shimmer wisely ended on his solo, as what else could possibly follow such a performance?

Alston's Isthmus was performed after the interval: a brief group work which had originally been created for Bob Lockyer's 70th birthday celebrations earlier this year. Isthmus is the kind of work Alston is best known for, using pizzicato music and buoyant linear movement in visually-striking choreography. And it ends all too soon.

Having earlier seen sensuality and partnerwork in Shimmer, this programme's premiere, Darkness Visible, saw another Alston rarity: floorwork. It's not until Darkness Visible starts, with a floor-based solo in dim light, that you realise how un-Alstonlike this solo for Pierre Tappon is. Meditative and graceful, this solo stretches Pierre Tappon choreographically, using repeated sweeping movements, unlike Alston's usual precision of movement, with expansive bows morphing into signature Alston moves. Nevertheless, the contrast in movement and lighting is not sufficient: this seems to be a work which calls for the dancer's personality to be more vivid.

The undisputed highlight of the evening was Martin Lawrance's Madcap, and more specifically, the total transformation of Nathan Goodman as a dancer from the opening scenes which saw him making rapid spiderlike movements in a circle of light.

Julia Wolfe's music, performed by Bang on a Can All Stars, was infectiously lively, imbuing the dancers with the jazziness of the music, and they seem to relish the less stylised choreography: Tappon's solos are more interesting than in Darkness Visible, and the fiery yet jaunty duets between Liam Riddick and Nancy Nerantzi see Nerantzi taking the lead.

Madcap is a very fast-paced and dynamic work, completely modern in style and very un-Alstonlike, building actual relationships between the dancers and toying with pacing, whether having Liam Riddick walk onstage, looking at each dancer challengingly as he breaks into a slow languid solo at the front of the stage as each dancer backs away cautiously, or Nathan Goodman tearing onstage, briefly grabbing Riddick then rushing off again.

We've come to expect fantastic performances from Liam Riddick in each show, but Nathan Goodman was the true revelation of this programme, demonstrating exactly how woefully underused he has been until now, and what a fantastic dancer he has the potential to be - it just remains to see whether Alston and Lawrance will continue to make the most of him, or whether he'll be snapped up by other companies after these fantastic performances!


Richard Alston Dance Company is currently on tour, and you can catch them on the following dates:

16 & 17 October: Royal & Derngate, Northampton
www.richardalstondance.com/14733/tour-dates/royal-derngate-northampton.html

23 October: Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
www.richardalstondance.com/14747/tour-dates/festival-theatre-edinburgh.html

1 November: Theatre Royal Glasgow
www.richardalstondance.com/14751/tour-dates/theatre-royal-glasgow.html

6 November: Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham
www.richardalstondance.com/14761/tour-dates/everyman-theatre-cheltenham.html

13 & 14 November: Wycombe Swan Theatre
www.richardalstondance.com/14764/tour-dates/wycombe-swan-theatre.html

13  - 16 December 2012, Peak Performances @ Montclair State University, New Jersey, USA
www.richardalstondance.com/14766/tour-dates/peak-performances-montclair-state-university-new-jersey-usa.html