Richard Alston has been one of the artists featured in this year's Dance Umbrella, with a programme honouring over four decades' worth of his works, performed in the relative intimacy of The Place's Robin Howard Theatre. Instead of a retrospective of his works, the evening offers a look at his earliest works, and contrasts them with where his company is now, with the premiere of a beautiful new duet by Martin Lawrance.

The opening piece, Early Days, is a medley of his earliest works, dating back to 1968 when he was one of the first students to enrol at the newly-opened London Contemporary Dance School. The first three works were created at the start of his training: the first piece, Still Moving Still (1969) saw Elly Braund spinning around with a long metal pole balancing on her shoulderblade, accompanied by a shakuhachi. Something To Do, last performed at the UpClose/In The Round evening of Richard Alston's earlier works last year, saw Richard Alston himself narrating a poem by Getrude Stein, interspersed with a duet by Anneli Binder and Hannah Kidd, suggestive of a dialogue between the two dancers. Nowhere Slowly was a passionate solo performed by Nancy Nerantzi; this was a far more emotional work than we are used to seeing from Richard Alston, with her falling to the floor and performing with a feverish look in her eyes. Even from the beginning of Alston's career, we could see the hallmarks of his signature style with the use of clearly-defined lines and abstraction of movement. While one member of the audience muttered that there was "too much Cunningham in his work", these early pieces, predating his period of study at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio, prove that his choreographic style had largely been defined even before he immersed himself in Cunningham technique.

Alston's Cunningham influence is most visible in the costumes used in 1977's Rainbow Bandit, with luridly-coloured costumes which could too-easily be mistaken for sportswear gone horribly wrong. A work for 12 dancers, and accompanied by vocal sampling of the words "Rainbow Bandit Bomb", this was the most technical work of the medley, with the dancers performing in duets and trios, breaking away to perform in new groups or alone. It ended poignantly with a solitary dancer leaping and dancing at the rear of the stage as the lights dimmed.

Compared to the works which followed in the evening, Early Days was the least satisfying piece, but was of interest for its historical value - and it was probably very beneficial to the hordes of GCSE and A-level students in the audience!

The second piece of the evening was a premiere of Martin Lawrance's latest work, Other Than I, a duet performed by Anneli Binder and Hannah Kidd. With Couperin's 'Leçon de ténèbres' creating a reverent mood, the piece started with a pensive, distracted Hannah Kidd, later becoming more frenzied and passionate, in counterpoint to Anneli Binder's more restrained accompaniment of her, occasionally shadowing her. A duet between the two seemed to transfer some of Binder's calmness to Kidd as the piece ended.

Other Than I is a sumptuous duet, with Lawrance effortlessly turning the Alston style into a work of beauty.

In Memory was created by Robert Cohan for the late London Contemporary Dance Theatre in 1989; essentially a work for four men, it's difficult not to draw comparisons with the early work of Michael Nunn and William Trevitt who formed George Piper Dances (later BalletBoyz) only two years later. While there was a recurring motif of a "power circle" temporarily uniting the four men, we saw them breaking away, briefly tussling with each other with vigorous, near-agressive partnering. They were joined by two women; one duet suggested a passionate argument with a loved one, with visible tension in their lifts and her running away only to return, or to be pulled back by her partner. The second duet, by contrast, saw Nathan Goodman trying to restrain a woman who wanted to leave, eventually failing.

It was interesting to see the distinctive style of Robert Cohan and his possible influences on Alston, although the comparisons with BalletBoyz were all too distracting!

The final piece of the night was Unfinished Business, a recent work by Richard Alston, completing the retrospective of his works. It started with a sprightly solo by Liam Riddick, which became more grounded in feel as the piece progressed, alternating with a graceful quartet. The cornerstone of the work was a lovely solo between Anneli Binder and Pierre Tapon, all the more powerful in the intimacy of the venue. We then saw a buoyant solo by the ever-wonderful Andres de Blust-Mommaerts; he was joined onstage by Riddick and Charlotte Eatock, whose relatively tame duet balanced the increasing wildness of de Blust-Mommaerts's dancing.

Watching Richard Alston's company is like reading a new book by a favourite author, or returning to a favourite holiday spot: the joy is in seeing Alston continue to explore his movement style and produce something new yet still familiar. And it's always a treat to watch his company perform "at home" in The Place, especially as it gives some of his dancers a greater chance to shine: Liam Riddick was particularly impressive to watch during In Memory and Unfinished Business, and Nancy Nerantzi's nuanced performances stood out, as did Hannah Kidd. And while we can look forward to seeing them at Sadler's Wells again in the spring, these performances at The Place have a more experimental feel which might lose their impact in the austerity of a larger venue.