MurleyDance represents an enormous amount of passion, ambition and vision for Artistic Director David Murley; in spite of the challenges of sustaining a touring ballet company in this country, MurleyDance is now in its third year, and on its second nationwide tour with the first of this year's two mixed bills.

One of the most admirable aspects of MurleyDance's work is David Murley's commitment to seeking interesing emerging choreographers to commission, ensuring a freshness of ideas and choreography in each of the company's mixed bills: Gwyn Emberton and Briar Adams in 2013, and 19-year-old Richard Chappell in this latest programme, 'Object Of My Affection', which seeks to explore people's attachment to objects through classical ballet and theatricality.

The fusion of classical ballet and theatricality was most evident in David Murley's opening work, 'Seated', which aimed to explore people's relationships with chairs through the ages, from the 18th century through to the present day - possibly the first time an Ikea flatpack has made its way into ballet!

Using composers including Bach, Handel, Corelli and Vivaldi, Murley handles the historical sections by emphasising the classicism of movement, with very tight choreography to depict the characters' dialogue. Murley's storytelling is slowly introduced, and develops through the remaining sections: the joyfulness of a young man twirling on a milk bar stool, standing to attention as a woman struts past in the 50s; a brother and sister tussling in the late 80s/early 90s, to the despair of their long-suffering mother, and a young man doing battle with an Ikea flatpack in the current day.

In MurleyDance's 2013 work 'La Peau', we saw Murley's gift for comic theatricality, and 'Seated' comes alive when Murley allows the storytelling to take over and break free from traditional movement. And yet in 'Seated', the theatricality and classicism are at odds with each other, never having a chance to integrate properly; stripped of storytelling, the dancers' classical movement loses a necessary dimension, while the storytelling at times becomes too heavy-handed when separated from the choreography.

The second work in the 'Object of My Affection' programme was 'À une passante (A Woman Passing By)', choreographed by Anthony Kurt-Gabel, an up-and-coming French dancer and choreographer who has danced with Adam Cooper, Mavin Khoo, Will Tuckett and the leading opera companies.

A very simple work, 'À une passant' is inspired by a Baudelaire poem about two people fated never to meet; Eloïse Hymas and Dylan Waddell, as the "Dream Couple", enacted the passionate relationship which could have been.

The strongest piece of the evening, Kurt-Gabel's unusual partnerwork elicited beautiful and expressive movement from lead dancers Monica Tapiador and Eloïse Hymas, and an engaging central duet between Hymas and Waddell, suited well to the dancers' abilities, with passionate and very physical performances from all. If anything, 'À une passant' seemed too brief - as ephemeral as its subject, and it could have been rewarding to see this work developed further, to see how it could have been extended.

The final piece of the evening, 'Into Decay', was created for MurleyDance by Richard Chappell, who is already receiving recognition for his work, despite still being a student at Rambert School: he has an upcoming commission with English National Ballet's youth company, and has received support from Wayne McGregor|Random Dance, National Youth Ballet and the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House.

With very ambitious and detailed programme notes, 'Into Decay' aimed to question "whether we rely on technology at the expense of longer-lasting and more satisfying human attachments", yet this appeared to be an overambitious premise, never exploring technology beyond jerky footage of decay, used to introduce each new section.

Nevertheless, 'Into Decay' is an impressive piece for such a young choreographer, showing a maturity and originality in his work, skilfully handling a large cast of ten dancers with challenging choreography for all, even if he misses the chance to use the dancers to their fullest.

Although 'Into Decay' never achieves its intentions, it's indicative of the promise the future holds for Chappell as he develops his voice further - as supported by the rapturous applause at each of 'Into Decay's many false endings.

At a time when this country's leading ballet companies are turning to contemporary dance to reinvent themselves, it is all the more important to see companies striving to promote and redefine classical ballet, and MurleyDance deserves all the more appreciation for its work in this area, with a 50-date national tour of seven works planned for this year alone - without receiving any public funding.

Photo credit: Chantal Guevara