Something about Others

National Youth Dance teamed up with Nottingham-based New English Contemporary Ballet to produce a quadruple bill, Something About Others, named from Jamie Thomson's opener. The second piece, Benoit Egloff's Frontier, evokes the 'free' dance of the early twentieth-century while maintaining a fresh, twenty-first century feel. NECB's Egloff then performs Richard Wherlock's sinuous Sidewinding, inspired by the movement of snakes, and it is a pleasure to see such high-calibre dance in an intimate studio. The biggest and best piece was Thompson's Out of Darkness. Reminiscent of William Forsythe because of the aggression seething beneath the quicksilver energy, it requires rock-solid technique: the cast of four males and seven females have technical assurance that belies their age. From a charged, wistful pas de deux for two scarcely-touching young men, the partner-work is stunning throughout. If edgy teen TV show Skins was choreographed, this is how it would look. The long full skirts, alternated with hot-pants, are worn and removed by both male and female dancers - perhaps symbolising the blurring of gendered roles and the removal of the cumbersome clothing that can sometimes hinder the physicality of ballet. This piece alone is worth the price of a ticket.